Philadelphia High School Students Build Automotive X Prize Contender [with Videos]

Some people are just meant to go places. In the case of 16-year old Azeem Hill and the rest of Simon Hauger's West Philadelphia-based high-school hybrid team, that place is somewhere into the vastly expanding world of alternative fuel technology.

The West Philly Hybrid X Team, builders of the EVX GT and EVX Focus, is the result of an after-school program at the Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering meant to educate youth about the future of hybrid tech and transportation. What's more impressive is that this young underdog team was in the running for this year's Automotive X Prize.

After besting some really heavy hitters (like MIT, for one), the EVX team was eventually disqualified. Still, let's give a digital round of applause to these guys for going out there and doing the damn thing with the big boys.

Azeem and other members of the program started out at ground level and learned everything necessary in order to create a hybrid car with the goal of returning 100 mpg in the city, 70 mpg on the highway, and still being able 60 in under 5 seconds. Check out the vids below to learn a little more about the program and its goals.

By Phil Alex

Link: EVXTeam , Via: Green.Autoblog & Treehugger

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