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• For the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, Edison2’s owner Oliver Kuttner assembled a high caliber team from professional motor racing. This elite group has among them over 20 victories at the triple crown of sportscar racing: Le Mans, Sebring and Daytona. The Very Light Car’s shape is by Barnaby Wainfan, Northrop Grumman’s aerodynamics fellow, who met Edison2’s Chief of Design Ron Mathis through the Audi Sport North America R10 program. Five-time Le Mans winner Emanuele Pirro drove the Very Light Car in this competition, along with up-and-coming professional driver (and Edison2’s Director of Research & Development) Brad Jaeger.

• Edison2 entered the X Prize expecting to build an electric or hybrid vehicle. Our early analysis of efficiency, however, pointed to the unequivocal virtues of light weight and low aerodynamic drag. X Prize competition requirements made an internal combustion engine, running on E85, our preferred choice, but in the real world an electric drive could prove best: Edison2 is fuel source agnostic.

• The Very Light Car is extremely light. Every component has been evaluated for function and redesigned with an eye to simplicity, strength and low weight. For example, brake calipers that usually weigh several pounds are less than one pound; lugnuts are 0.2 instead of 1 ounce.

• Innovations derived from racing enhance safety in the Very Light Car. These innovations include collapsible space not available in current cars (such as wheels outside of the main body structure), a shape that avoids direct impacts, and a lightweight, sturdy steel frame. By far the best-handling vehicle in the X Prize dynamic safety tests, the Very Light Car’s agility improves accident avoidance, and its low mass is an advantage in single-car or auto-pedestrian accidents.

• The Very Light Car embraces sustainability. Not just efficient to drive, but cradle-to-grave environmentally responsible. Less mass means fewer material inputs. Energy intensive and hazardous or scarce materials are largely avoided in favor of conventional materials, such as aluminum and steel, that are readily available, easily made in volume, and completely recyclable.

• At heart the Very Light Car is a simple vehicle, avoiding the feature creep that has loaded down contemporary vehicles. Design simplicity, low mass, and conventional materials result in lower material costs and production time. 

• The Very Light Car is very likely the most efficient automobile platform ever built. Edison2’s innovations in auto efficiency apply regardless of power source. Weighing less than 800 lbs. and with a coefficient of drag of 0.16, the Very Light Car will be an ideal complement to an electric powertrain, meaning a smaller, less expensive battery pack, solving problems of range and performance.

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