According to the article, what are the advantages of air-powered cars? Look at the text again and visualise the development stages of air-powered cars. Use your representation to talk about the history of AirPod 2.0. Make a list of adjectives in the article which refer to cars or technology. Which are: positive? negative? neutral? What other adjectives could describe the AirPod 2.0? Example: Design classics: compact, fun, … Look at this sentence about the AirPod. Example: Compared to electric cars, air-powered cars cost a fraction of the price to buy, they don’t need expensive batteries to be replaced every five years or so and crucially they take only a fraction of the time to recharge. The recharging time of air-powered cars is two minutes. Find out how long the recharging of electric cars takes. How else could you express the difference? Use these expressions and make other changes as necessary. Think about how the comparisons might continue. Which could use: than? as? of? that? c Negre argued that air power truly is a superior car technology, which could be highly efficient. Yet, his car was welcomed with scepticism by both investors and regulators - the French Agency for the Environment claiming that he had insufficient safety assessments on his vehicles. Some critics questioned the truly “clean” character of the vehicle, since electricity was still needed to compress the air, and might be coming from fossil fuel sources. So, the air-powered car would only be marginally less polluting than conventional combustion engines. Compared to purely electric vehicles, where would it stand? But eventually, MDI succeeded in reaching international markets. After 31 months of negotiation, a collaboration contract between MDI and the Indian automobile leader Tata Motors was signed in 2007, bringing credibility to the project after a decade-long struggle. Tata Mini CAT – the name given to Negre’s prototype – moved to stage two in 2012, after which no updates were made on the project and the commercialisation was postponed to an undefined date. Guy Negre passed away in 2016 and Tata Motors did not continue with his revolutionary idea. Possibly because air-propulsion entails conversion losses and requires impractical, low speeds and short distances, which do not entirely match customers’ expectations today. His work certainly inspired other actors of the car industry to explore this unproven technology. For example, the French car manufacturer Peugeot also attempted to bring the concept to life with its 2013 “Hybrid Air” model - based on a combination of gasoline and a compressed-air reservoir. However, Peugeot’s managers denounced a lack of support from the French government, which allocated subsidies primarily to electric and hybrid cars, without helping companies to tackle the expensive development of any alternative technologies. French waste management giant Veolia also decided to join the compressed-air race: in 2014, it signed a partnership with MDI for the supply of waste-collecting vehicles powered by air. On the other side of the Atlantic, the US company Zero Pollution Motors was also seduced by the innovation and bought a license for selling AirPod cars in the United States. MDI has not yet given up on the idea, which has been labelled unreliable by many critics. Taken over by Negre’s son, the firm earned recognition from the UN, which recognized it as a leader of the technology in 2016. In 2019, MDI announced a modernized model called AirPod 2.0, allowing a hybrid way of refueling and a speed reaching up to 80 km/h. MDI still hopes to create interest among French investors and is pursuing dialog with political representatives. In fact, the country aims at stopping diesel-fueled motors sales by 2035 and has already implemented a system of bonuses for low emissions cars. These two policies are an opportunity MDI is determined to take advantage of. d Language focus Describing technology 22 a b Language focus Measuring differences 23 a much less several hours about xxx times b 140 Language skills Extras Explore 10 From design to brands Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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