Green Cars

The Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize is an idea whose time has come.

Looking around the web we see a growing interest in green cars. Gas 2.0, Green Car Congress, Green Transportation and Earth2Tech are just a few of the blogs following and promoting innovation in car technology. Our favorite may be Autoblog Green, which gave us our first hit of publicity with Detroit 2010: Edison2's Very Light Car scoffs at Electric Avenue.

Considering that in the US 2/3 of the energy used to move people and things around comes from passenger cars, we desperately need to change, in a big way, the efficiency of the automobile. 100 mpg is a big change. It is the kind of change envisioned by the X Prize Foundation’s mission: “to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity, thereby inspiring the formation of new industries, jobs and the revitalization of markets that are currently stuck”.

The Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize is intended “to inspire a new generation of viable, safe, affordable and super fuel efficient vehicles that people want to buy”. The competition begins in earnest with the shakedown phase later this month, followed by June’s knockout stage and the finals in July. The X Prize teams come from around the world, with wide-ranging ideas on how build a car capable of getting over 100 mpg.

We like to think that our approach – extremely low weight, extremely low aerodynamic drag – will emerge as the best idea. We’ll find out soon.



New Video

The Very Light Car is unique in a number of ways, including mass, shape, aerodynamics, efficiency and safety. Each innovation influences the next. Our latest video covers some key aspects of the Very Light Car. 

The Very Light Car Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7JKKSTDpC0

We Come From Racing

Edison2 is a racing team. Racing as in Le Mans, Sebring and Daytona. We are designers, engineers, mechanics, builders and drivers of very fast, championship-caliber cars, now engaged in a race – the X Prize – to build a highly efficient, safe, and well-performing automobile.

The Very Light Car is an inevitable reflection of our background. We understand how to make a car light and aerodynamic since these are two ingredients of any successful race car. We know how to make a light car strong and safe, evidenced by drivers walking away from very high-speed collisions. We realize the value of simplicity of design and clarity of function.

The X Prize sees this competition as a way to bring meaningful and rapid rather than incremental and gradual efficiency improvements to the auto industry. Not only must the winner achieve over 100 mpg, but also must meet safety and emissions standards, handle and perform well, and have a business plan capable of selling 10,000 cars per year by 2014.

The Very Light Car embodies the tradition of innovation that racing has brought to the automotive world. We are excited to be part of the X Prize competition, joining teams from around the world in creating the cars of the future.



Our Name

Edison2. Not exactly the name you might expect from one of the only non-electric, non-hybrid entries in the X Prize.

The truth is that when we first contemplated this competition we fully expected to build a hybrid of some type, to take advantage of the energy that can be gained from regenerative braking – hence the name Edison2. However, once we started our analysis we realized that any gain realized through braking was negated by the energy needed to propel the additional weight of a hybrid’s motor and batteries. 

With our Very Light Car we see very low weight and very low aerodynamic drag as the path to efficiency, and rather than add hundreds of pounds of batteries and a hybrid drive to our car we are using a highly efficient, 250cc E85 engine.

Of course our innovations in platform efficiency would be a great asset to any hybrid or electric design. But we believe that not only is our approach the most efficient for the X Prize competition, but it is the most practical and cost-efficient way to move our auto culture towards sustainability.

So while our name may be a bit of a surprise, we see it as a fitting tribute to the legacy of teamwork and innovation that comes from the original Edison lab in Menlo Park.



A Day At The Track

Tuesday we took the Very Light Car to the new North Carolina Manufacturer Proving Grounds – so new they are still building the road to the facility. In fact, we were their very first customer.

In the end the X Prize is all about fuel economy. Performance, emissions and safety are all factors, but it is first and foremost about fuel economy. We must meet or exceed 100 mpg based, in part, on the EPA fuel economy testing standards.  Since we cannot at this time duplicate the actual EPA drive cycle, we decided to compare the VLC to a car with known EPA values, a VW diesel Jetta. Basically we carefully filled and refilled each vehicle, weighing the gas can before and after different driving tests to know exactly how much fuel was used over a measured distance. This allowed us accuracy to 0.1 ounce.

The results showed us to be right where we hoped to be. The Jetta used between 2.5 and 3 times as much fuel as the VLC (the same one we took to the Detroit Auto Show – remember we are entered in the mainstream class and both alternative classes, with a total of 5 cars). At higher speeds this difference was more pronounced. The driving was spirited and the speeds were often right at the limit of what the Jetta could do, tires squealing in situations that the VLC handled without complaint.

With what we saw Tuesday we think we can meet the efficiency and performance goals, and there are still numerous improvements to be made between now and the competition. And Tuesday’s testing was with the least efficient and least powerful of our engines.

The best is yet to come.