Members of the West Philly Hybrid X Team, Sowande Gay, center, and Christopher Millsip, right, talk with team coordinator Ron Preiss as they dismantle part of a Ford Focus they plan to customize for the Automotive X Prize contest. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
PHILADELPHIA -- A multimillion-dollar contest to create fuel-efficient cars is not just a lark for inventors -- it could reveal the future of an industry moving toward "green" thinking.
More than 100 teams are vying to win the $10 million Progressive Automotive X Prize for environmentally friendly, production-ready vehicles that finish a long-distance stage race and get the equivalent of at least 100 mpg.
An unlikely top prospect is a team of inner-city students from West Philadelphia. Relying on knowledge, experience and a small budget, they are set to take on big-name hopefuls such as alternative car company Aptera and a group including rocker Neil Young.
Popular Mechanics ranked the West Philly Hybrid X Team -- one of only two high schools in the field -- in the Top 10 early contenders last year. "Many people still see us as very serious competitors," says team director Simon Hauger.
Contest officials in April announced the final field of 111 teams from 11 countries, more than double the number of entrants expected, says Cristin Lindsay, vice president for prize operations.
- The Automotive X Prize is expected to take place in several cities over a few months beginning next May. The sites are to be announced this summer.
- The X Prize Foundation, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based nonprofit institute, is best known for hosting the Ansari X Prize, which led to the first manned private spaceflight in 2004. Besides the auto contest, it is also sponsoring prizes for genomics, health care and a moon landing. xprize.org
The teams have entered a total of 136 cars in two categories, representing a variety of body types and 14 combinations of fuel sources. They run the gamut from Young's team's 1959 convertible Lincoln Continental to a futuristic, three-wheeled vehicle from Aptera.
The West Philly students are entering a pair of custom hybrid cars: a rather staid, four-door Ford Focus and a sexy Factory Five GTM Supercar sportster, which they are building from a kit.
They had a huge success with their last kit car, a sleek K-1 Attack sports coupe hybrid. It went from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds -- but had enough fuel efficiency to win the Tour de Sol for green-technology vehicles in 2005 and 2006.
They also won the race in 2002, with a Saturn that Hauger said got the equivalent of 181 mpg.
"Over the years, the progress that they made was just phenomenal," says Nancy Hazard, director of the Tour de Sol, which is on hiatus. "Their enthusiasm was just terrific."
The teens belong to the after-school EVX Club at the West Philadelphia Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering. Quintessential underdogs, they come from a financially and academically troubled urban school district.
"We all want to win this," says sophomore Azeem Hill, 15. "This is good for empowering young people."
William Coughlin, president and CEO of Ford subsidiary Ford Global Technologies, will be monitoring the contest and the Focus built by the West Philly students.
"They're going to find challenges, and I hope they overcome them," Coughlin says. "Maybe they'll be able to shed some light -- that's my fervent hope. We're happy to learn from any of the X Prize results."
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