The Auto X-Prize Winners

By John Voelcker and Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

The Challengers

After many months of testing, qualifying, and mechanical challenges -- not to mention reams of press releases -- today the Progressive Automotive X-Prize announced the winners of its three categories, who will split $10 million in prize money.

Both winners in the "alternative" classes for two-passenger vehicles were electric: the Wave II (side-by-side) from Li-Ion Motors of Mooresville, North Carolina, and the E-Tracer (tandem) from Peraves X-Tracer of Winterthur, Switzerland. Each of those teams takes home $2.5 million.

The $5 million winner was the Charlottesville, Virginia, team calling itself Edison2, whose "Very Light Car" (# 98) boasted the lowest drag coefficient of any four-wheeled vehicle tested.

Oliver Kuttner, a dealer and racer of, assembled the Edison2 team of eight full-time members plus more than 50 other contributors. It entered no fewer than four Very Light Cars, each with slightly different bodywork on top of the same basis chassis and powertrain.

All weighed under 1,000 pounds and turned in drag coefficients of 0.15, far better than any production car today. The body of the winning vehicle was made entirely of carbon fiber.

Edison2

As the name indicates, the team focused obsessively on reducing weight in their vehicle, which allowed them to use a smaller displacement engine. The entire vehicle weighed a mere 830 pounds (sans passengers). That's roughly one-third the weight of any other four-passenger car sold today in the United States.

Running on E85 ethanol, their 0.25-liter dual overhead-cam single-cylinder engine generated 40 horsepower -- and squeaked them past the 100-MPG minimum required of any competitor to win.

The final result was 102.5 MPGe, or "miles-per-gallon-equivalent," a metric constructed by Auto X Prize organizers after discussions by a working group to find some single way to compare vehicles using a wide variety of powertrains (mechanical and electrical) and energy storage mechanisms (predominantly liquid fuel, hydrogen, and battery packs).

Li-Ion Motors Triumphant: E-Tracer

The tandem E-Tracer used two outrigger wheels to stabilize it at low speeds, and it led the competition with more than 200 MPGe. It provided more than 100 miles of range, and it had motorcycle-quick acceleration, hitting 60 mph from a standing start in just 6.6 seconds.

While it may look like a motorcycle, it uses similar powertrain technology (licensed from AC Propulsion) to two much better-known electric vehicles: the Tesla Roadster and the limited-production Mini E.

And the results don’t surprise us one little bit.

While press releases from California-based Aptera Motors would have anyone believe their Aptera 2e was the best vehicle at the event, those responsible for choosing the winner disagreed.

Li-Ion Wave

The Li-Ion Wave II "demonstrated outstanding low mechanical and aerodynamic drag" that resulted in a rating of 187 MPGe in its track and lab testing, 0-to-60-mph acceleration of 14. 7 seconds and more than 100 miles of real-world range.

The Wave II is similar in appearance to the much-hyped Aptera, but features a conventional four-wheel placement combined with a futuristic, ultra-aerodynamic body.

Founded in Nevada in 2000, Li-Ion Motors Corp. has had an interesting past, including work with NASA and the U.S. military.

But it mainly focuses on conversions. Rather than make electric cars from scratch, the company’s corporate strategy has been based around adapting existing cars to electric power, including BMW’s Mini, Chrysler’s PT Cruiser and Crossfire, and Daimler’s Smart ForTwo.

Of course, winning the prize is bound to raise interest in the Li-Ion Wave II, but we’re unsure if it will ever progress beyond the ultra-efficient design which achieved a massive 182.3 MPGe during the X-Prize fuel efficiency tests.

After all, more conventional and more practical vehicles are now set to reach the marketplace, all from automakers for whom the $2.5 million prize fun seems a little small. Regular readers know by now that the list includes the 2011 Nissan Leaf, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the 2011 Coda Sedan, and the 2011 Fisker Karma just within the next 12 months.

We’d expect Li-Ion to focus its prize funds on continuing research into conversion technology, improved battery and drive trains and perhaps, conversions on a more cost-effective scale.