Filed under: Emerging Technologies, MPG, Transportation Alternatives, Honda, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, SEMA Show
alé goes for X-Prize
Whether there's a consumer market for the alé, a 2-seat 3-wheeler built by Fuel Vapor Technologies, or not, the vehicle is an early contender for the Automotive X-prize. The X-Prize is a global competition designed to inspire automotive innovation, and a multi-million-dollar prize is up for grabs. While it weighs a scant 1,400 pounds and is aerodynamically fluid, the alé would still achieve only about 70 mpg in EPA tests with the stock Honda 1.5-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine. Right now, designers say it can get 92 mpg. The difference is the patent-pending fuel system that serves up a vapor in front of the stock throttle body. During light-duty cruising, the engine's regular fuel injectors are shut off and engine runs only on the vapors. The alé we found at the SEMA Show did not have the vapor system on the engine. It would normally go on the turbo pipe leading to the throttle body. Officials said they are still working out the patent details and didn't want to show off the product too early. According to lead engineer Brad Zimmerman, the vehicle can go from 0-60 in five seconds. He adds that the biggest problem facing the vehicle before public release is fixing the "drivability" problems as the computer switches between the standard and vapor fuel systems. Right now the alé could be certified as a car in Europe but would be a motorcycle in the U.S. Currently there are no plans to market a stand-alone vapor system that could be retrofit on other vehicles because the electronics are so complicated.
More photos after the break.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Dennis Waller 10:03PM (11/06/2006)
I can't believe a two seater would be a valid AXP contender. That's hardly main stream market.
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Dave 2:33PM (11/10/2006)
Yeah, this modified motorcycle vs. an 18 wheeler on the highway, but you get 92 miles to the gallon, GREAT!!!
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nathan 2:52PM (4/30/2009)
Like you're gonna survive an 18-wheeler collision in anything else? Brilliant argument, Einstein. Let's just all drive M1-tanks, then. What have you invented lately?
When people call Americans fat & stupid, just remember. You're the reason.
emmy 2:36PM (11/10/2006)
Wow, it looks so cool! I'd want one X)
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Jr. 2:41PM (11/10/2006)
Fantastic! Love it own one!
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Michael B. Smith St.James 2:44PM (11/10/2006)
Concept is neat and there is a place for new kinds of vehicles on our roads. But this one looks like a Carp from the front and a Bumper Car from behind. Redesign the body and let's bring 'em to market!
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Tom 2:45PM (11/10/2006)
For our family to go on vacation, we would need four of these things, looks like a backwards tricycle to me.
What would it and the occupants look like after a 65 mph encounter with an 80,000 pound gvw 18 wheeler? Maybe some rusty colored paint chips could be found inside a 10 mile radius. Also, vaporized fuel really worries me. Isn't this how you make a highly explosive device?
DUMB-DEE-DUMB-DUMB
Tom
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wild bill 7:32PM (9/25/2008)
Tom,Tom,Tom ....... What happens to anything that hits a Semi at 80 + mph ? You will have a much better chance in this wrap around tubular steel frame than perched atop a standard motorcycle like a vase on a rocking chair ...Tom reality check ...nothing is really safe and you take your chances according;y
Bob Hughes 2:46PM (11/10/2006)
Isn't it curious that none of the big US auto makers are working on this technology? If a Honda engine can be converted to get 92 MPG, why not GM or Ford? Instead they focus on big gass guzzlers and can't figure out why sales are flat and profits are down. Wake up and smell the coffee. Instead of closing plants, get with the picture and give the consumers what they need.
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Corky 2:52PM (11/10/2006)
Great concept until I think about getting broadsided in that lighweight, two seated death trap. Reminds me of the pedal car I had when I was a kid. And a vapor fuel system with "complicated electronics"? Boom!
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Barry Wood 3:03PM (11/10/2006)
ill buy one, gives a whole refreshing concept to the backseat driver ;o)
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Thomas M. DiResta 3:04PM (11/10/2006)
where can I purchase one
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David M 3:08PM (11/10/2006)
Now put the technology in a real car, make it bigger than a golf cart or "Gold Wing" motorcycle, have it hold at least 4 adults and cargo, price it competively with other conventional cars in its class, and people will buy it.
Today the premium price on hybrids far outways any potential fuel savings!
If you build it they will come . . .
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Mark 3:09PM (11/10/2006)
Okay, it would take four of them to take your family on a vactaion. I really doubt they are planning on marketing it as a "Family Car." Geez folks! As a person who has never owned a car, but has always had a motorcycle I think this is great! Bring that puppy to market, even if it only gets 72 miles a gallon.
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Brian Napier 3:11PM (11/10/2006)
if not for the secret agreements between Detroit and The OIL Mafia , we could have had such technologies and fuel economies decades ago !! How many patents did they buy up merely to become "dust collecters" on various shelves ??!!??
I am not surprised that only foreign makers would see the real value and move forward in such an exciting direction !!
No wonder Detroit is now the resting place of dinos like Hudson , Packard . Studebaker , Nash , Edsel , Lafayette , Pierce Arrow , Dusenberg , Cord , Auburn , De Soto , Stutz , Peerless , American Motors , ect.
How soon before the Big 4 , now the sinking and stinking 3 , becomes a dusty and forgotten museum piece , a paeon to arrogance , conspicuous consumption , waste and planned obsolescence ??!!?? !!
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nathan 2:52PM (4/30/2009)
Very soon. Funny that the very labor unions the workers hoped would guarantee their jobs will actually contribute to the demise of the big 3 & loss of those jobs. All those people, all those resources & they could only make one car that doesn't suck. That's why socialism doesn't work, folks.
Fisker, Tesla, AC Propulsion, etc. will do to GM & Ford what Ford did to the horse & buggy. My next car is electric.
Melvin Rothenburger 3:22PM (11/10/2006)
Looks like a beer bottle on wheels.
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Melvin Rottenhamburger 3:24PM (11/10/2006)
It blo's !
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Melvin Rothenburger 3:25PM (11/10/2006)
This Carp is a piece of crap!
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David 3:30PM (11/10/2006)
The point is not whether this concept makes it to the marketplace. It shows people are thinking and building concepts. They are going away from the Detroit way of doing things.
Detroit, as soon as you realize you are not the "King of the road" anymore, maybe you will see and build what the people want. We don't have to settle for your product any more.
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