Author: David Gluckman

Beginning in 2012, Buick will no longer use trim levels like CX, CXS, and CXL to differentiate between models with different equipment levels. Instead, cars will be sold with different packages. The only Buicks that will receive exterior identification will be special models—like a GS, for instance. The change is supposed to streamline the production and buying processes.

Plus, they’ll save some money on badges.

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A team of students from the Université Laval in Quebec won the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas for the second year in a row by achieving fuel mileage of 2487.5 miles per gallon of gasoline. They won the event last year with an even more impressive figure of 2757.1 mpg; the drop is likely due to previous Eco-Marathons being held at race tracks with smoother pavement than that found at this year’s competition, which used real-world streets for the first time.

In addition to the overall title, the Canadian team’s vehicle (shown above) also won the Prototype class, which is made up of three-wheeled streamliners powered by gasoline, diesel, or ethanol internal-combustion engines; solar arrays; or hydrogen fuel cells. The UrbanConcept class—which was won by a team from Mater Dei High School in Evansville, Indiana, with a 437.2-mpg figure—can use any of those power sources but has a few more restrictions; four wheels, doors, lights, cargo space, and two seats are required, making the resulting entries a bit more recognizable as cars. These cars also are required to make three 10-second pit stops that are meant to more accurately depict stop-and-go city driving.

I had a chance to visit the competition site on Friday during practice runs, and spoke with the officials and some teams. Here’s what I found out:

What’s this competition about?
The Eco-Marathon is a student competition put on by Shell to try to get kids thinking about how we can do more with less energy. Competitions like this one are held in Europe, North America, and, for the first time this year, Asia.

How do you get an mpg figure for a solar-powered car?
That was one of my first questions. All energy use is normalized to miles per gallon of 87-octane gas for the purposes of comparison. They could report the results in megajoules per mile, but that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Those who do use gasoline get by on the amounts so tiny (about a tablespoon) that they’re measured to an accuracy of plus or minus 0.01 ml.

What are the race conditions like?
This year’s track was a 0.6-mile loop around Discovery Green park in downtown Houston. Vehicles have to average a minimum speed of 15 mph for 10 laps—they can go faster but it’ll just use more fuel. (OK, so perhaps Eco-Marathon isn’t quite the right descriptor.)

The top teams only “burn” their engines for a few seconds per lap, coasting and trying to keep up momentum the rest of the time. One of the officials estimated that the cars get up to around 25 mph, coast back to 10, and repeat as necessary. Some even use GPS plots of the track to model driver behavior and determine precisely when to burn, and for how long. Pretty sophisticated stuff. (I had the chance to drive around the track in an UrbanConcept vehicle that Shell built. I don’t know what my exact mileage was, but I am completely certain I didn’t get 437.2 mpg.)

What’s in it for Shell?
Shell doesn’t actually aim to gain any knowledge from the teams; the company organizes the event and helps defray travel costs, but it doesn’t stick its nose into precisely how the teams are accomplishing the task beyond ensuring entrants meet the letter of the rules.

And the kids?
The students get to work real hard on what looks like a fun project that provides some almost-real-world engineering experience. They also retain the rights to their intellectual property, which some of them take to real industry jobs.

What’s next?
The rules likely will evolve for 2011 and include a separate electric mobility class (solar, fuel cells, and plug-ins) so that the vehicles can be compared more fairly. And the mpg numbers probably will go up.

Granted, these student-built vehicles are much smaller and lighter than anything we’d care to commute in, but the numbers they’re getting out of them are still very impressive. Congratulations to all of the 42 student teams that competed in this year’s Eco-marathon.

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We haven’t told you anything about V-Vehicle, a new start-up American automaker, because the company hasn’t shown or announced its wares yet. (If you don’t make any promises, no one can cite you as a vaporware producer or call you out on missed self-imposed deadlines.) Now it looks like the would-be manufacturer’s still-secret launch plans are in jeopardy as a result of a loan denial from the Department of Energy.

First, some background. V-Vehicle was founded by Frank Varasano, a former Oracle vice president, and has thus far been funded by venture capital, the bulk of which has come from VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as well as T. Boone Pickens. Former Mazda designer Tom Matano—he of Mazda Miata–penning fame—designed the small, efficient four-seater that the company planned to assemble in a former Guide headlamp factory in Monroe, Louisiana. In addition to the $86.5 million secured through private fundraising, V-Vehicle has been promised $67 million from the state of Louisiana.

Now the DOE has decided to deny V-Vehicle’s request for a total of $321 million in loans as part of the $25 billion set aside for the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program which was established by Congress in 2007; $241.2 million was to go toward preparing V-Vehicle’s Monroe plant for manufacturing and $79.9 million was to help with engineering and coordinating suppliers. Several manufacturers big (Ford got $5.9 billion) and small (Tesla was given $465 million) and one supplier have received funding under the same program already.

The denial reportedly came as a surprise both to those inside the company and the Louisiana officials familiar with the plan, who said that yearlong discussions appeared headed toward loan approval. Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu said she would ask the DOE for the reasons behind the rejection, and look for other possible funding options.

So why was the loan denied? Our guess is unions, or the lack of their involvement in V-Vehicle’s plan. The 1400-person workforce that the company planned to begin hiring with the help of Louisiana state programs was not going to be UAW-controlled. The UAW has a strong lobby in Washington, as you well know. Whatever the reason, V-Vehicle seemingly had no warning that the loans were going to fall through. As for possible fallback plans, they’re as secret as the rest of V-Vehicle’s operation.

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