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Edison2 Unveils New Super-MPG Car At The Henry Ford

DEARBORN — Finally, a 21st Century car that really looks like it came from the 21st Century.

The venue was appropriate. The Henry Ford is a shrine to American innovation, and the Edison2 is packed with innovation from stem to stern.

« X Prize Finals: Week 1 | Main | Thoughts on MPGe »
Tuesday
Jul202010

Greetings from the X Prize Finals

DateTuesday, July 20, 2010 at 10:24AM | | Print ArticlePrint Article

The Finals stage of the Automotive X Prize is underway. Twelve teams from six countries unloaded their trailers and moved into garages Sunday and began technical inspections yesterday morning. Of the 136 cars that entered the 3 categories of the X Prize a year ago only 15 remain.

The Alternative Side-By-Side class (100+ MPGe, 100 mile range, 2 passengers seated side-by-side, 0-60 in 18 seconds) finalists are Amp, (Cincinnati, OH), Aptera, (San Diego, CA), Li-ion Motors (Mooresville, North Carolina), RaceAbout Association, (Finland), Tata Motors (Coventry, UK) TW4XP (Germany), Western Washington University (Bellingham, WA) and ZAP (Santa Rosa, CA). WWU uses a hybrid drive, and the other Side-By-Sides are battery electrics.

The Tandem class – same requirements as Side-By-Side except for seating position – consists of Tango (Spokane, WA), Spira (Carrollton, IL/Thailand), X-Tracer (Switzerland), and our # 95 Very Light Car. X-Tracer has two entries, very similar 2-wheelers. The Tango and the X-Tracers are electric, while our Very Light Car and the Spira are internal combustion.

We have the Mainstream class to ourselves. Our E85 fueled #97 and #98 cars were the only entrants to survive the Knockout round.  Mainstream requires a 200-mile range and a 15-second 0 – 60: stiff requirements, especially for electrics and hybrids, helping explain our lack of finals competition. The Mainstream class comes with a $5 million prize, the Alternative classes $2.5 million each.

Not to say we have the Mainstream class wrapped up: far from it. Wednesday through Friday begins a series of efficiency events, mimicking the EPA mileage cycles and requiring a combined 100 MPGe. Dynamic safety events, such as lane-change and braking, are on Monday, with the combined performance and efficiency event on Tuesday.

This combined event is the actual race. It requires cars to exceed 100 MPGe on a course with a variety of turns, within a maximum and minimum speed range. The car that completes this course in the shortest time will be an X Prize winner (and it is possible all requirements will not be met and a category will not have a winner). The top cars in each category will spend the end of next week undergoing coast-down testing, a requirement for dynamometer testing of emissions and mileage at Argonne National Laboratory in August. Argonne also puts the cars through another stiff challenge, especially for electrics: a 40-minute hill climb on the dynamometer. The dyno efficiency results are averaged with the MIS track results, and if the combination is greater than 100 MPGe, if the emissions are met, and if the Argonne hill is successfully climbed, a champion will be announced.

 

Yesterday all three of our cars passed technical inspection. Not all cars at the finals have done so yet and some may face an early elimination. Today we are readying all three cars for the efficiency tests; Wednesday morning the urban cycle testing begins at 8:30 for the #95 car.

The finals are a complicated, lengthy series of events. It can be followed, much of it  real-time, at the Progressive Automotive X Prize website. Stay tuned.



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Reader Comments (33)

This is nice. Can't wait to see the winner. I bet the winner would be the fastest.

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I'm very glad to see you guys building the Very Light Car. I've been driving Honda Civics for 20+ years. I've been very disappointed as the Civic grew in size over the years, and each new model's MPG shrunk. The new Honda Fit only gets 35 MPG on the highway! (my 1980 Civic DX got 45 MPG). The biggest disappointment from Honda was their withdrawal of the original Insight (65+ MPG) from the market, and their introduction of some very disappointing Hybrids. Honda's one of the "greener" car manufacturers, but (like the entire automobile industry) they're going in the wrong direction.

I think there's a pent up demand from drivers like me (58 years old, environmentally conscious, lived through the oil shocks of the 1970s and early 1980s) for a car that gets 70 MPG or better. Please let me know when you start selling your vehicle to consumers. I want to be "the first on my block" to own an Edison2 VLC.

Keep up the great work!

John Ranta
Hancock, NH

July 22, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterJohn Ranta

Yeah, my dad had a 1986 Mercedes 300 D that would get over 40 mpg. It had plenty of power to pull a boat or camper trailer. It also continued to run after the odometer broke for the second time at 300,000 miles+. The next generation 300 D that came after it got around 35 mpg. Yes Edison 2, please make the VLC! There is also a younger generation of consumers out there like me, that want a vehicle with much higher fuel efficiency as well.

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