Why target 800 miles on a fill? That just seems excessive, given the fast recharge time. Reducing the capacity would make for a cheaper, lighter vehicle. I suspect this is a modular option allowing you to buy a smaller tank if you wish.

From my experience with SCUBA, I would expect that a 3 minute recharge will only take you to 80% or so of the range and a longer recharge time would be needed for a full charge. When you pump air into a tank, it gets hot and the air then contracts when it cools. This means that 100% of hot air will reduce to 80% or so of cooled air. To get a full 100%$ needs cool filling which will take a lot longer (takes approx 15 minutes for a regular SCUBA tank in a cold water bath).

Still, who cares about that 80% of 800 miles is still an excessive amount.

A rupturing compressed air tank would be pretty interesting. Exploding SCUBA tanks will destroy buildings and kill people.

Technology like this would only be safe in a well regulated environment. In SCUBA circles I am familiar with you need to have the tank visually inspected annually and hydrostatically pressure tested every 4 years. No certificates, no fill. SCUBA divers have safety drilled into them, so most would respect that. SCUBA is also a relatively rich person's sport. If you can afford the grear you can afford the testing etc.

Testing is relatively expensive so I'd be pretty worried about falsified testing certificates in car-user circles where there are so many people cutting corners to save a couple of bucks.

Written in September 2008