Viking 45 Electric HybridDesign, Construction and Analysis: A Quest for the $10 million Progressive Automotive X Prize

Faculty and undergraduate students at the Vehicle Research Institute developed the parallel electric hybrid Viking 45 to compete in the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The contest challenged auto manufacturers to build vehicles that could achieve a gasoline equivalent fuel efficiency of 2.35 liter per 100 km while meeting a subset of U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission standards. The contest offered a $10 million purse to encourage participation.

Viking 45 features a 50 kW, three cylinder gasoline engine coupled with a 23 kW electric motor. A 9.6 kWh lithium polymer battery pack allows the vehicle to travel more than 100 km at 100 km/hr. Carbon fiber composite vacuum assisted resin transfer techniques were developed to demonstrate the potential for low volume (10,000 units/year) production. The monocoque chassis demonstrated carbon fiber honeycomb for impact attenuation structures to manage front and side impacts. These materials enabled the test weight of the vehicle, with driver to be 789 kg. The vehicle achieved a top ten finish out of 136 vehicles entered.