Did Zero Pollution Motors Survive After Shark Tank? Here's What Happened After Season 6

Season six of "Shark Tank," which aired in 2014, saw a company called Zero Pollution Motors looking to revolutionize the United States automobile industry. The product was called the Air Car, a car propelled not by gas or electricity but by compressed air. Though there was some interest from the sharks on the show, and a deal was discussed, it was never finalized post-show. As of this writing, Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) appears to be out of business, with no Air Cars produced or sold.

Zero Pollution Motors itself was unique in that it was the United States license of an already-existent company out of Luxembourg called MDI. That company develops its own Air Car, so ZPM's goal was to bring that innovative technology to the U.S. The car was meant to be cleaner for the air in urban environments, with its small size intended to make it easier to get around large metropolitan areas.

Sometimes, when deals are agreed to during an episode of "Shark Tank," they don't pass the formal due diligence period after the show, as was the case with the RokBlok record player in season nine. Just like RokBlok, it seems that no "Shark Tank" deal went through for the Air Car, so ZPM was never able to fulfill its vision.

During the episode, Zero Pollution Motors was represented by Ethan Tucker, but the sharks were a bit distracted by the person accompanying Tucker. It was Pat Boone, the actor and recording artist with multiple awards to his name. Tucker asked for $5 million for a 25% stake in the company. The investment was sought to build manufacturing and selling facilities for the Air Car, with the first aimed to be in Hawaii. The cars were set to cost up to $5,100 to make, and the plan was to sell them for $10,000.

The panel of sharks was a bit hesitant about investing since the business was so new to the North American market. No facilities existed yet, and there was worry about how it would be rolled out on a national scale. Eventually, Robert Herjavec offered a deal. He'd invest the $5 million for a 50% stake in the company so long as ZPM was able to secure permissions to manufacture and sell the cars all across the country. Unfortunately, the deal never closed.

Sometimes, a company is able to pivot in its products after being on "Shark Tank," while staying in business even without a shark's backing. That was the case for Rocketskates in Season seven, which eventually ditched the skates to focus on other forms of urban mobility. ZPM, however, was not able to do that.

ZPM has a website that talks all about its lofty goals for the Air Car. Its home page states that the first cars will be produced in 2024 and the first golf carts will be manufactured by 2025. However, the website page to pay money to reserve your Air Car says that they will be delivered to buyers in late 2019. Given that the time of this writing is late February 2026, the website doesn't showcase people with their Air Cars, and there are conflicting dates, it's not a good sign for the business's success.

The website also has a link to a YouTube video, but clicking on it shows that the video is not available, and the Facebook page has not been updated since 2018. The last post talks about a factory being built within two months and a StartEngine online equity funding campaign that would start soon after that. No updates have followed. Comments on that post have people asking what happened and trying to get some response from the business on whether it is still planning to make the cars. There have been no replies from the page owners.

Despite ZPM looking to bring a new car concept to the United States, it looks like the best electric vehicles will continue to be the choice to combat pollution.