Air-powered car wins $5 million on TV show Shark Tank

Compressed Air Propelled Vehicle Idea Still Around

A start-up that wants to replace dirty fossil fuel cars with small air powered ones received $5 million in funding Friday on the ABC show Shark Tank.

Robert Herjavec, one of the investors on the show, pledged the money to Zero Pollution Motors. The company is responsible for an air-compression powered car called the AIRpod, according to Environment News Service. The car works like this: tanks of cold compressed air are heated, the air is then fed to the cylinders of a piston engine. The only byproduct is air, which is actually cleaner than it was going in due to the AIRpod's filters. The AIRpod tops out at 50 miles per hour with a range of 80 miles, making it essentially a city car. The tanks can be refilled in five minutes with a commercial-grade air compressor found at just about any gas station, according to Treehugger. It will cost drivers about $2 to fill up.

The company will use the $5 million to build their first factory in Hawaii. Zero Pollution Motors plans to build small plants to manufacture and sell the vehicles from the same location. With its congested traffic and reliance on expensive imported gas, Hawaii presents the perfect place to test a green machine.

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