Causecast

by CLAIRE MORGENSTERN, Contributing Writer

This spring and summer, 43 teams of experts who have designed innovative, super-efficient cars capable of netting 100 miles to the gallon will compete in for a $10 million dollar prize—including a group of students at an inner-city high school in Philadelphia.

The contest, called the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, is meant to produce prototypes for fuel-efficient vehicles that could potentially be turned into a line of “real” cars that could be sold to consumers, meaning that they’re safe, reliable, and capable of being mass produced.

The 43 finalist teams were chosen last Tuesday from a pool of 97 initial designs, and contestants range from giants such as California electric car manufacturers Aptera Motors and Tesla Motors, air-powered car maker Zero Pollution Motors, and German diesel-powered car manufacturer Loremo to tech-savvy engineers from Silicon Valley and teams of college students from such high-ranking universities as Cornell, and finally, to a group of 15 high school students at the Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering in West Philly.

The Philadelphia team has been receiving attention not just for their underdog status (they are the only high school team in the competition), but also for the quality of the two vehicles they decided to enter. The EVX Focus, their submission in the “mainstream” category, is a model of the Ford Focus modified to burn both gas and bio-butanol. The group’s prototype in the “alternative” category, the EVX GT, modifies the existing frame of a Factory Five GT to create a two-seater biodiesel hybrid sports car that will easily exceed the minimum 100 mpg standard that the contest rules dictate.

However, these teens aren’t exactly novices in the world of auto-building competitions, either. The Hybrid X team has entered and won similar competitions over the last 11 years.  In 2002, 2005, 2006, and 2007 they conquered the Tour de Sol (renamed the 21st Century Automotive Challenge in 2007), in which contestants must build hybrid or biodiesel vehicles capable of being driven 150 miles at a minimum of 100 mpg.

Some of the team’s past projects have included a soybean-fueled sports car and a hybrid vehicle that could go from 0 to 60 in four seconds and got 60 miles per gallon of biodiesel.

We’re not the only ones who have noticed. Exxon-Mobil recently awarded the group $25,000 to be put towards their current projects.

The team’s success has also helped put this small urban high school, originally designed to prepare low-income students for careers in the auto industry after high school or college, on the map.  At the same time, the opportunity to pour their energy and free time into developing green automotive technology provides an alternative for some of the school’s students to becoming involved in the pervasive drugs and violence in their own neighborhoods. So regardless of whether or not the group wins the X prize, it’s a win-win for all involved.

If the team does win the competition, however, they’re planning to put $7.5 million in a scholarship fund to give back to the institution that gave them the opportunity to win in the first place.

Photo by Seattle Municipal Archives, flickr.