The Progressive Automotive XPrize Competition Crowns Three Winners

Recently, in an effort to inspire innovation in the alternative transportation field, Progressive Auto Insurance decided to hold a contest to find the best car that could achieve 100 MPGe (miles per gallon gasoline equivalent) with green fuel. Partnered with the XPrize Foundation, an organization that offers prizes for competitions that ask for a certain innovation based criteria, the Progressive Automotive XPrize offered $10 million to the top three teams in the competition. Though twenty six teams entered the competition with vehicles of varying designs, three were chosen in the end for displaying the best possible designs that could achieve 100 or more miles per gallon with green fuel.

The first two green vehicles to be crowned winners in the contest split half of the $10 million to take home $2.5 million each. One of the winners was the X-Tracer Team, which should be familiar to those who saw the article on the E-Tracer. Though similar in many ways to a motorcycle, the E-Tracer is a vehicle all its own and it had a great performance during the competition. With a range of well over 100 miles, the Tracer was already a promising electric vehicle and its overall green miles per gallon of 205.3 quickly put it into the top contenders group. With the competition at its end, the X-Tracer team has officially won the $2.5 million and takes home a victory in the Alternative Tandem Class.

The next mode of alternative transportation to take home $2.5 million was the Li-on Motors team with their electric vehicle known as the Wave II. Based in Mooresville, North Carolina, Li-on Motors dedicates themselves to completely redesigning how they believe automobiles should run and look. The Wave II is designed to be entirely aerodynamic and lightweight while providing all the services a customer would expect in an automobile. The electric vehicle also has an expected range of 120 miles with the possibility of an extended battery pack that would allow a range of around 300 miles. Though the Wave II's MPGe is lower than the Tracer at 187 MPGe, the vehicle's overall performance brought it in for the Alternative Side-by-Side Class prize.

The remainder of the $5 million was awarded to the green vehicle that performed the best out of the competition. Taking home the prize was the Edison 2 Very Light Car with an overall MPGe of 102.5. The team at Edison 2 designed the Very Light Car to take advantage of ultra lightweight materials and by cutting down on the size of particular features to keep the weight down. One of the biggest differences between the Very Light Car and the other winners, is that instead of running on a lithium ion battery system, the vehicle runs instead on E85 ethanol fuel. Thanks to its unique design and ability to go beyond 100 MPGe, the Very Light Car was able to claim the prize in the Mainstream Class.

Overall, the competition brought together several very interesting alternative transportation teams and projects before selecting the final three. Competitions like these are always exciting since they drive innovators to the very edge in hopes of finding the next breakthrough that could revolutionize the way we operate. Hopefully, another such competition is waiting just around the corner to give the other contestants the chance to improve their designs and drive forward the green vehicle industry.