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At speeds of 32-40 mph it'll never hold its own on the Autobahn, but Energine's Pneumatic-Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) might be just the thing for earth-friendly trips to the market. A low consumption, low pollution vehicle, PHEV uses both a two-stroke compressed air engine and a battery-driven motor. 'The compressed air is used when the car needs a lot of energy, such as for starting up the car and acceleration,' Energine's Cheol-Seung Cho told CNN. 'The electric motor comes to life once the car has gained normal cruising speed. You could say our car has two hearts pumping. That is, we have separate motors running at different times, both at the time when they can perform most efficiently.'
Energine, it should be noted, isn't the first outfit to develop an air-powered car (Motor Development International rolled one out in 2002; see 'Pranksters let air out of Compressed Air Technology car tires, engine') . Nor is it the only novel hybrid approach. University of California, Davis professor Andy Frank just converted a 325-horsepower Ford Explorer into a hybrid electric/coal monstrosity that gets 25 to 30 miles to the gallon and goes from 0 to 60 in seven seconds using very little gas. 'We just built a high-performance plug-in hybrid Ford Explorer,' Frank said recently. 'It's 325 horsepower -- 200 of that horsepower is electric and 125 is gasoline. This car goes like a rocket, but still gets double the fuel economy of a regular hybrid. And for the first 50 miles it is all electric -- zero emissions.'"
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