September 20, 2010
E85 vehicle wins $5 million for fuel efficiency
Published in Ethanol Producer Magazine
An educational nonprofit prize organization and a car insurance company awarded an E85 vehicle the top monetary award in a super fuel-efficient vehicle competition. The E85 vehicle received $5 million on Sept. 16 while two battery electric vehicles were awarded $2.5 million each from the X PRIZE Foundation and Progressive Insurance.
The E85 vehicle was the mainstream class winner with a fuel economy of 102.5 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe). The Edison2 "Very Light Car #98" hailed from Charlottesville, Va. “Boasting the lowest drag coefficient of any car with four wheels tested in the GM wind tunnel and at the Chrysler Proving Grounds, this vehicle demonstrated over 100 MPGe on the test track, and verified in the lab, under stringent testing conditions using a highly innovative small displacement engine,” the press release said. “Its low weight of just 830 pounds is a tribute to its use of light weight materials, reduced engine displacement and a host of other weight-saving innovations.”
The Li-ion Motors Corp. of Mooresville, N.C., battery electric car has a fuel economy of 187 MPGe. It weighs 2,176 pounds and has a range of more than 100 miles in a real-world driving cycle. The alternative tandem class winner was the X-Tracer Team Switzerland from Winterthur, Switzerland, and has a fuel economy of 205.3 MPGe. At 1,436 pounds, this battery electric also has more than 100 miles in range and achieved a zero-to-60 mph acceleration time of just 6.6 seconds.
The three teams emerged from rigorous testing from 111 competing teams, representing 136 vehicle entries from around the world. The $10 million in prize money was awarded at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., with a variety of award ceremony participants, including Speaker of the ....
