The X prize competition illustrates how incentives can drive innovation. A car that gets 100.3 MPG and weighs less than 1,000 pounds won the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE award. What is most surprising is the fact that it is not an electric car, but one that is powered by an internal combustion engine. The winning team used a non-electric engine because the current generation of batteries are heavy and costly.
The winning vehicle is known as the Very Light Car #98, it is made of low-cost, recyclable materials, and could potentially go on sale for $20,000. It won the $5 million prize in the “mainstream” category, which required cars to seat four people, run on four wheels and have a driving range of at least 200 miles. However, the Very Light Car car is not emissions free and isn’t equipped with air bags or other standard safety features.
Two battery-powered cars each won $2.5 million in prize money. Li-ion Motors Corp.’s Wave II, delivers 187 MPG and won in the “alternative side-by-side” category. This category included two-seaters where the driver and passenger sit side by side.
A car known as the E-Tracer 79 delivers 205.3 MPG and won in the “alternative tandem class.” In this category two people sit one behind the other. The E-Tracer weighs only 830 pounds and had the best efficiency numbers of all the cars participating in the X Prize competition. It has innovative low mass hub-mounted suspension for its aerodynamically flared four wheels.
Another green car competition is known as Project Eve, it is a Canadian initiative aimed at furthering the production of EV’s and EV components in Canada. A four-passenger car known as the Kestrel was created to compete in Project Eve. One of the car’s more interesting innovations includes the use of composite materials that are very light weight yet very strong and safe. More specifically it uses hemp which is a bio-composite material that is low cost, impact resistant, and sustainable.
Meaningful automotive innovations were unleashed by the X prize and Project Eve. It is remarkable how much innovation has been fostered with small incentives, think of how much could be achieved with a stronger network of government incentives.
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