See more: Click here to see the gallery of X Prize finalists
鈥淚鈥橫 not proud of it, but I was after the money.鈥� So confessed Oliver Kuttner of Edison2, based in Lynchburg, Virginia, which last week won the mainstream class of the Progressive Automotive X Prize 鈥� and bagged $5 million.
The competition鈥檚 overarching goal was to find a reasonably priced car with a fuel efficiency of at least 100 miles per US gallon equivalent (mpge) 鈥� or 100 kilometres per 2.35 litres. Edison2鈥檚 four-seater Very Light Car, which runs on an alcohol-petrol mix, just passed the test, managing 102.5 mpge.
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No such worries for Swiss team X-Tracer, based in Winterthur, whose battery-powered E-Tracer triumphed in the tandem section of the 鈥渁lternative鈥� class 鈥� two-seater vehicles with the passenger behind the driver. Team co-leader Felix Wagner said he 鈥渃ouldn鈥檛 believe his eyes鈥� when he first saw the competition goals 鈥� because his team thought that the E-Tracer could already double the required efficiency. The E-Tracer achieved 187.6 mpge and won $2.5 million.
The third winning team 鈥� Li-ion Motors, from Las Vegas, Nevada 鈥� also claimed $2.5 million, this time in the side-by-side-seating section of the alternative class. Their electric Wave 2 clocked an efficiency of 187 mpge.
