X-Prize standings by mode of power
 

(based on a lot of clicking about with http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org/)

Internal Combustion
8 entered
2 withdrew
4 eliminated
eliminated reasons
<67mpge,<67mpge,<minmpg,blank
2 remaining
%37.5 of 8 entrants eliminated for mpge


Battery Electric
15 entered
1 withdrew
7 eliminated
eliminated reasons
co2,range,blank,accel,DNS,<minmpg,co2,range,techni cal,blank
7 remaining
%20 of 15 entrants eliminated for mpge/range*

Hybrids(including plug in)
9 entered
2 withdrew
7 eliminated
eliminated reasons
<67mpge,<67mpge,emissions,<67mpge,avoidance,<67mpg e,<67mpge
0 remaining
%55.6 of 9 entrants eliminated for mpge


*I'm including range in the electric figures because, well, the teams really blew that mpg estimate, didn't they?

I appreciate that mpge is a bit wonky unit of measure, and this is a pretty small sample, but if hybrids were doing the job in a competition, they should do better mpg than an Internal combustion only vehicle if mpge is biased against Internal Combustion.

I suppose you could claim that both VLC cars are simply way ahead on weight and aero too, plenty of margin of error to go around :)

The WWU hybrid was doing quite well, vying for 1st in side-by-side IIRC, until a suspension mount broke and they were unable to continue.

The X-Prize's particular set of rules encouraged extremely lightweight cars. I'll bet the rolling chassis of every single successful car is man-portable. Most made extensive use of composites and aluminium.

In the real world, steel bodies are all but required to keep costs down. Between this and crash safety, you'd be hard pressed to build a rolling chassis that weighs less than 1500lbs.

One of the biggest consequences of an overweight car is the engine has to be sized to your power requirements during acceleration, which means the engine is grossly oversized for cruising where it spends most of its time. That's the biggest reason hybridization works so well in heavier cars. Also, a hybrid system has a harder time pulling its weight when it makes up a higher percentage of the vehicle's weight.

I suppose what you can conclude from the X-Prize is for cars and bikes under 500lbs, don't bother going hybrid.

Here's another interesting factoid: All of the cars that were converted from road car to X-prize car did poorly. None of them met the required mpg(e) criterion.

There were no electrics left in Mainstream at the end, probably due to range considerations (although the Illuminati 7 probably could have made it if they hadn't been eliminated for a clutch problem). Also, VLC says they are switching to electric drive for the production cars. Go figure.

re: wwu, wow, that v40 is one lightweight and aerodynamic car. Do you happen to know how the Viking 45 hybrid setup worked? like how much electrical performance/energy did it carry compared to its turbo 1l?

I think they had enough battery to go about 60 miles, then it switched to the Insight powertrain.

Patrick -

This "side by side" seems to be a range elimination, since it couldn't complete the required laps to be under 200g/mile CO2(e?) :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-cf...limination.jpg

CarloSW2

...and, obviously, the huge "gap" between POSSIBLE and PRACTICAL continues to be there!

I don't understand your meaning. is this a condemnation of the xprize cars not being efficient enough, or not being practical enough, or ???