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Meet the Virginia-Built 110MPG X-Prize Car
tcd004 writes "Instead of using Detroit engineers or Silicon Valley bitheads, Virginia-based Edison2 relied on retired Formula 1 and Nascar engineers to build its entry for the X-prize. Relying on composite materials and titanium, the team assembled an ultra-lightweight car that provides all the comforts of a standard 4-passenger vehicle, but gets more than 100 mpg. The custom engineering goes all the way down to the car's lug nuts, which weigh less than 11 grams each. Amazingly, they expect a production version of the car should cost less than $20,000." Earlier today, in a Washington, DC ceremony, Edison2 received $5 million as the X-prize winner. Writes the AP (via Google) "Two other car makers will split $2.5 million each: Mooresville, N.C.-based Li-Ion Motors Corp., which made the Wave2, a two-seat electric car that gets 187 miles on a charge, and X-Tracer Team of Winterthur, Switzerland, whose motorcycle-like electric mini-car, the E-Tracer 7009, gets 205 miles on a charge. Both of those companies are taking orders for their cars."
Too bad the oil companies will make sure you never see it on the road.
Rob
They took a motocycle trike and put a canopy on it. FU. It's not innovative and quite frankly looks like hell. Do most people want a $20,000 quadricycle. NO! Try again, motorcycle trikes are able to at least pull something, not much but something, and they already get the mileage they claim to suddenly be capable of. Remember folks, you still have to deal with a big rig in a snow storm. What? It doesn't work under 35deg F? And you WILL die if you get into any type of accident? Great selling points. Ex F1 engineers? I don't think so. They may have worked for a short time building F1 cars but you know damn well they were run off for their lack of engineering skills. This is sophomore pre-graduate engineering at it's best.
Like the above posters have pointed out. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099060491065.htm) Cars like this will never be seen in the U.S. Why? Because of greenie lobbyist organizations that know nothing about emissions and what truly is green. They love their lobbying power, they love driving SUVs and flying private jets to their functions. Let me put it to you this way. If you donate money to these outfits you are a fool. It's funny how they often lobby against cars like these because of their simplemindedness. "Diesel is bad! We are green! Trust us!(as they fly away on a private jet funded by you)"
http://vimeo.com/5285448
A car that could have long been in production if the government actually funded innovation and wasn't simply looking out for unions.
Seriously, wake me when these things can be made on a traditional assembly line by unskilled labor and when they can take the place of a Ford F-150 pickup truck. Anything else is a stunt.