Today’s news is all about electric cars, or at least electrified variations of the cars, trucks, and SUVs we’ve come to rely on over the years. It wasn’t always that way. In fact, for decades there was wide recognition that our driving needs might be well-served with an array of fuels and technologies and that maximum mpg was an increasingly important goal. The reason was, and is, clear: Greater fuel economy means less fuel is used for every mile driven, and thus carbon emissions are greatly reduced. This was the focus of the Automotive X Prize and the innovative teams that strived to demonstrate extreme fuel efficiency. The Alé shown here from FuelVapor Technologies was one such entrant that caught our editors’ attention back in 2007. This article, drawn from Green Car Journal’s extensive archives, appears here just as it ran in the magazine’s Summer 2007 issue.
Excerpted from Summer 2007 issue: FuelVapor Technologies has shown the technology it plans to use to capture an Automotive X-Prize, a competition with multi-million dollar prizes for the fastest car that gets over 100 miles per gallon. Entered in the alternative category requiring only two-passenger capacity, the company’s innovative and futuristic three-wheel Alé carries two in tandem. The mainstream X-Prize category requires four seats.
Maximum MPG from a Honda Engine
Power delivered to the front two wheels comes from a modified 1.5-liter, four-cylinder Honda engine. The turbocharged, two-stage single cam VTEC engine produces 180 horsepower. To achieve its super-high mpg goals, FuelVapor Technologies has developed a sophisticated electronic gasoline vapor fuel management system that vaporizes the gasoline, allowing the engine to run with extremely lean air-fuel ratios for maximum mpg.
How important is this? Compared to most gasoline engines that operate on a 14.7:1 air-to-fuel ratio, FuelVapor’s patent pending system can run on a ratio of over 20:1. The vaporized mixture is delivered to the front of the stock throttle body. During light-duty cruising, the engine’s regular fuel injectors are shut off and the engine runs only on the vapors.
Low Tailpipe and CO2 Emissions
Currently, the system appears to be optimized for performance, so the company claims “only” 92 mpg on regular gasoline at this point in time. For example, the 1400 pound, 174-inch long car can accelerate from 0-60 mpg in under 5 seconds and has an electronically limited top speed of 140 mph. It achieves super-low emissions without a catalytic converter and CO2 emissions are also reduced by 30 percent.
The car’s aerodynamically efficient design uses a hand-laid fiberglass composite body over a full tube frame with roll cage. Other features include a Honda CRX-based adjustable coilover spring front suspension, single-sided swing arm with fully adjustable coilover spring rear suspension, Porsche 911 rack-and-pinion steering, and disc brakes on all three wheels.
All this comes together to allow the Alé to easily pull 1.7 g’s in corners...on street tires. Plans are for limited production of Alés to begin in 2008.