Unless you've been living in a cave for the past few months, you're probably aware that designing more fuel efficient cars has become the new Holy Grail for both established automakers and upstart entrepreneurs alike.
You may have even heard that GM's forthcoming Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid scheduled to go on sale in late 2010, is expected to get 230 miles-per-gallon. What you many not realize, however, is that the Volt is far from the only game in town when it comes to cars designed to return maximum miles-per-gallon.
In fact, there are more than 100 teams hard at work on their entries in next summer's Automotive X-Prize competition. The reason for all this interest? A $10 million award for the first group that develops both a car that achieves 100 miles-per-gallon and a viable business plan to start mass producing it.
You can learn more about all the teams at the X-Prize website, but we'd especially recommend you check out two of our personal favorites. First up is the all-electric Aptera, a three-wheeled wonder that looks like something straight out of an old Jetsons cartoon. Being partial to underdogs, we also like the scrappy team from inner-city West Philadelphia High School that's coming off a string of wins in similar competitions.
All that said, we realize that it'll be years before any of us can park one of these new mega-MPG machines in our driveway. So, in the meantime, here are a few of our current fuel economy favorites you'll find on sale now:
Compact
Midsize
SUV
Leave a comment