FREAKMOBILES WIN PROGRESSIVE AUTOMOTIVE X-PRIZE
By Cammie
The long slog toward the first Progressive Automotive X-Prize is over. And no, the Neil Young's Lincoln didn't win. Nor did anything that looks remotely like a production car.
The three winners followed high-mileage conventional wisdom - freakish hyper-aerodynamics and light weight. Nothing too revolutionary there. Here are the class winners:
1. "Mainstream" (four seaters) :Edison2's Very Light Car No. 98.
2. "Side-by-side" (two seats): Li-ion Motors Corp.'s Wave II.
3. "Tandem" (two seats): X-Tracer Team Switzerland's E-Tracer No. 79.
So what did we really learn from the X-Prize competition?
A. Despite all of the pre-competition claims, high m.p.g.e cars pretty much look like wingless aircraft or enclosed motorcycles. (Just imagine the streets filled with look-a-like aerodynamic blobs)
B. Electrification and electric hybrid technology are not the only ways to achieve high efficiency (the winning "car" used a small internal combustion engine, not electricity).
C. Surprisingly, the Old American South is apparently a hotbed of Automotive fuel economy research (two of the three winners were from south of the Mason-Dixon Line, not Silicon Valley)
D. A obvious motorcycle with a pair of retractable wheels is a "car." (That is until you take it to the DMV or EPA/NHTSA)
E. There's no substitute (yet) for light weight (a fact that will confound the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
After all of this, I can't say I'm too excited about "the future."
By Cammie
The long slog toward the first Progressive Automotive X-Prize is over. And no, the Neil Young's Lincoln didn't win. Nor did anything that looks remotely like a production car.
The three winners followed high-mileage conventional wisdom - freakish hyper-aerodynamics and light weight. Nothing too revolutionary there. Here are the class winners:
1. "Mainstream" (four seaters) :Edison2's Very Light Car No. 98.
2. "Side-by-side" (two seats): Li-ion Motors Corp.'s Wave II.
3. "Tandem" (two seats): X-Tracer Team Switzerland's E-Tracer No. 79.
So what did we really learn from the X-Prize competition?
A. Despite all of the pre-competition claims, high m.p.g.e cars pretty much look like wingless aircraft or enclosed motorcycles. (Just imagine the streets filled with look-a-like aerodynamic blobs)
B. Electrification and electric hybrid technology are not the only ways to achieve high efficiency (the winning "car" used a small internal combustion engine, not electricity).
C. Surprisingly, the Old American South is apparently a hotbed of Automotive fuel economy research (two of the three winners were from south of the Mason-Dixon Line, not Silicon Valley)
D. A obvious motorcycle with a pair of retractable wheels is a "car." (That is until you take it to the DMV or EPA/NHTSA)
E. There's no substitute (yet) for light weight (a fact that will confound the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
After all of this, I can't say I'm too excited about "the future."
Labels: Automotive X Prize, Edison2, Li-ion Motors, X-Tracer Team Switzerland
posted by Editor at 10:33
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