Mainstream Finalists in Automotive X-Prize Not So Mainstream

Mainstream Finalists in Automotive X-Prize Not So Mainstream

By John O'Dell August 16, 2010

Edison2 Team Challenging Conventional Thinking With Space-Age, Ultra-Light Vehicles 

Edison2 Very Light Car #97 is one of Virginia-based team's two Mainstream class entries in the Progressive Automotive X Prize fuel economy competition.

By Danny King, Contributor

If Edison2 wins the mainstream category of the Progressive Automotive X-Prize competition - as the only remaining entrant in that category only a last-minute technical breakdown could keep it from victory - and if the wining car is a foretaste of things to come, the passenger vehicle of the future may not be, as many expect, powered by clean electricity or hydrogen or exotic engineered biofuels.

It won't even look much like a car.

Instead, it just might be an ultra-lightweight, aircraft-styled, four-seater with a tiny, turbocharged motorbike engine that sips a blend of 85 percent corn ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

And it will weigh-in at about a quarter of the typical mid-sized car in the U.S., its mass pared to the bone by use of extreme lightweight materials and by shedding heavyweight features such the motors and wiring required to run power seats and windows. In a neat piece of symmetry, the 800-pound gorilla with a shot at half the $10 million Automotive X Prize purse is a team with a pair of - literally - 800-pound cars.

The X-Prize rules say the winner in each of three categories has to demonstrate the ability to return fuel efficiency equivalent to 100 miles per gallon in a gasoline vehicle, and must be "production capable."

That's opened the doors to a lot of interesting interpretations - one entry that was in the running until last month for one of a pair of $2.5 million prizes for two-seat alternative vehicles is made of foam and looks like a tanning bed on wheels. While it certainly was capable of being mass produced, it almost certainly never would have been.

A total of 113 teams entered vehicles in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize competition, only nine remain and Team Edison 2, backed by Virginia real estate developer and former Porsche, Audi and BMW franchisee Oliver Kuttner, was the only team in the four-wheel, four-seat mainstream vehicle class to get its cars to achieve the finals benchmark of at least 90 miles per gallon (one car did just under 100mph, the other just over) while passing various handling, speed and acceleration tests at Michigan International Speedway last month.

That makes it eligible for $5 million of the Progressive Automotive X Prize's purse- a break-even proposition as that's about what Kuttner and his backers spent developing and fielding the teams' two finalist cars and two others that didn't make the grade.

The other half of the $10 million in prize money is to be divided equally among winners, if any, of the alternative classes - one for tandem two-seaters, one for side-by-side two-seaters.

Because Edison2's cars are the mainstream class vehicles, they're the ones most likely to spark interest among mainstream automakers if either makes it through the last, or "Validation," phase of the contest, which involves testing on the dynamometer at Argonne National Laboratory.

Winners will have to test for at least 100 mpg-equivalent fuel economy on the "dyno." The cars also will be tested for emissions and must meet the contest's very tough standards. Dynamometer and emissions testing began August 2 and runs for another week.

Edison2 - the name is homage to Thomas Alva's genius, not the electric utility companies that bear his name -  got this far this by building and submitting two so-called "Very Light Cars," developed by Northrop Grumman aerodynamics fellow Barnaby Wainfan and Edison2 Chief of Design Ron Mathis, who'd previously worked on projects for Audi, Dodge and Jaguar.

Each of the four-passenger vehicles' curb weight of about 800 pounds is half of that of a Smart ForTwo, and their 40-horsepower engines' displacement of 250 cubic centimeters seems more suited to a motor scooter than a freeway-capable car.

"They took an unusual approach," said Brian Silva, chief marketing officer for the competition's lead sponsor, Progressive Insurance. He noted that Edison2 has the only cars in the contest running on E85, a blend of ethanol and gasoline.

That was part of the lightweighting strategy.

Members of the Edison 2 team pose with serveral of the Virginia-based group's Automotive X-Prize entries. The team has the only two vehicles remaining in the Mainstream category for four-wheel, four-seat vehicles as final validation tests are being run at Argonne National Laboratory this month.

Kuttner and his core crew of engineers and designers wanted to avoid the weight that would come with using inherently heavy batteries to power an electric drive system. So they chose to use a turbocharged small motorcycle engine that, aside from its high-pitched whine, has done an admirable jog of delivering both power and fuel economy.

The VLCs' styling also is unconventional. The cars look a bit like small private jets sheared of  wings and tails and fitted with four 'cycle-fendered, outboard wheels.

"The aerodynamics look like what you'd think about when you imagined what kind of car you're going to see in the future," said Silva.

Whether such an approach was within the spirit of the contest's goal of developing a legitimate four-seat, four-wheeled car that's suitable for production is a matter of debate, though. Some of Edison2's less well-funded competitors - teams with electric-powered vehicles whose curb weights are closer to the conventional 3,000-4,000 pound range - questioned whether
Edison2's cars would have the safety, durability or visual appeal to serve any purpose aside from winning fuel-economy competitions.

Kevin Smith, leader of Illinois-based Illuminati Motor Works, doubted whether the small engines running at high RPMs that Edison2 is using would hold up in a "real" car after years in the field.  He said he believes the engines wouldn't last for more than 50,000 miles.

lluminati's all-electric vehicle (left) was the last mainstream class opponent standing between Edson2 and an unchallenged run for the winners' podium before a faulty clutch led to the car's disqualification.

The streamlined, boat-tailed vehicle was cut in the Finals round for failing to meet the required 0-60 acceleration time of under 15 seconds. Smith said the disqualification was "devastating" for his seven-member team.

"The whole premise was to bring a production vehicle to the race, [and everyone did] except Oliver," said a dismayed Carl Guichard, CEO of the Louisiana-based Global-E team, whose battery-electric vehicle was eliminated in the X Prize's "Shakedown" stage and whose plug-in hybrid G-1 (right) failed to make it through the ensuing "Knockout" round.

Kuttner's goal, Guichard complained, was merely "to bring something that's going to win.'"

Edison2's research and development director, Brad Jaeger, denies that the team set out to build competition-only cars (Kuttner couldn't be reached for an interview), adding that team members'  racing and technical expertise simply gave them revolutionary approach to car design while other contestants were using more evolutionary methods.

Most lightweight programs are stripping weight out of vehicles five pounds here, 10 pounds there. What we've done is taken a ground-up approach and reinvented the architecture of a vehicle," said Jaeger, who is also a professional race-car driver.

"X Prize is about changing the norm. If people want to have fuel-efficient vehicles, you're going to see cars that are much lighter."  The team claims a top speed of more than 100 mph and 0-60 acceleration in under 7 seconds for the cars with turbocharged one-cylinder engines.

Jaeger said that Edison2's cars are two of the competition's larger vehicles "as far as track width and wheelbase," and added that, from the standpoint of potentially meeting federal safety regulation standards, the Very Light Cars' outboard (think Indy Car, but with wheel coverings) wheels and in-wheel suspension system create a crush zone that absorbs crash energy while the cars' diamond-like shape helps deflect and protect the passenger cabin in the event of a collision.

To simulate the extra weight of the safety glass, airbags and other safety-related components that the Edison2 cars lack, contest organizers made each car carry 100 pounds of ballast, Jaeger said.

Arguments over Edison2's qualifications may be a testament to Progressive's unfettered vision, but also speak to competitors' lust for the prize money being doled out.

In the vision department, the insurance giant has been sponsoring and co-sponsoring a series of contests designed to further the development of vehicles that can cut petroleum use through alternative fuel methods, physical design and other technological improvements.

Many of the Automotive X-Prize teams spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and expended thousands of hours, getting their cars ready for the contest. Smith says he personally bankrolled most of the $120,000 in cash spent on Illuminati's car and received tens of thousands of dollars more in free labor and donated parts.

"It's the only thing you've been thinking about for three years, and when you stop thinking about it, you're still thinking about it," said Smith, who said most team members spent between 60 and 100 hours a week working on the car for the six months leading up to X Prize finals last month. "I'm pretty much tapped as far as funds go."

Guichard's commitment was even deeper, at least from a financial standpoint. With a handful of Global-E's dozen team members working full time on the project, the team spent about $750,000 on its entries and knew fairly early on that it wasn't go to be in the running.

"Even if we would've made the next hurdle, we knew we couldn't have achieved the 100 miles per gallon - maybe could've squeaked out 85 or 88," said Guichard. "The cost of just doing the prize is exorbitant. And $5 million [the mainstream class prize] isn't going to launch a company."

Jaeger said that Edison2's core members, who've been working together since 2002, spent "a little under $5 million" on the contest

Although it is the only team left standing, the Mainstream Class prize is by no means guaranteed to Edison2.

Both of the Very Light Cars will be tested this week  at the U.S. Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory, and will need to have achieved a combined fuel economy of at least 100 miles per gallon between the road course and dynamometer testing to get the prize.

The winners - if any emerge form the Argonne tests - of the Mainstream category and the side-by-side and tandem Alternative categories, will be announced in Washington D.C. on Sept. 16.

Regardless of the outcome, Jaeger says Edison2 already is "talking to a few very large companies" about further developing the Very Light Car concept.

Jaeger envisions a variation of the Very Light Car on U.S. roads within five years.

The hope, he said, is for a deal that produces a partnership with a well-funded automaker willing to help mass produce the vehicles but also willing to give team members the independence to continue working on technological innovations.
 
"We have no intention of raising the capital to build these vehicles ourselves," Jaeger said. "Many others have tried to do that and failed."
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Take a peek behind the scenes at the Automotive X-Prize on-track finals.
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Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of Team Edison 2
Photos 3 and 4 courtesy Progressive Automotive X Prize

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.