Check out this article on a CAV [Compressed Air Vehicle] slated for tests in the USA http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/...essed-air-cars-planned-airport-test-us-launch I like this comment that someone posted at the bottom of the article
There was an analysis of compressed air energy storage on The Oil Drum some time ago. Here it is: http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/3473 The executive summary is that it is a really inefficient way of storing energy. Even a theoretically perfect single-stage engine will only be able to use 52% of the stored energy. Things get better with multi-stage engines, but it still really sucks. Not to take away from the original post. That car is fugly.