Cornell AXP Mule: PHEV Geo Metro

By Eric Boyd on July 1, 2008 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Cornell University

The Cornell AXP team is organized and well planned - and with regular updates from Popular Mechanics, they are also one of the most transparent teams. A few weeks ago they raced their Geo Metro mule car at the 2008 Green Grand Prix, finishing 26 out of 46 teams, and averaging 44 MPG. I've made a page for the Cornell AXP Mule car, which is probably nothing like their final car, but still quite interesting. Read on for the same information via HTML. Be sure to listen to my interview with their old team leader.

Updated: Cornell is not the only college team, there is also Western Washington University...

Short Description: 4-seat lead-acid PHEV Geo Metro
Availability & Cost: mule exists now

Background and Details

Cornell University is the only university team yet to enter the Automotive X Prize; their students and faculty have experience with Formula SAE and other vehicle contests
This page features their mule (test car), a retrofitted 1991 Geo Metro, with 570 lbs of lead-acid batteries
The rendering on the right is for the final race vehicle - about which little information exists yet
I was not able to find any information about the size/power/type of motor(s) added to make the mule a PHEV
Cornell AXP has been successful finding sponsors for their vehicle (see logos on mule above) - including Popular Mechanics, which regularly reports on their progress
Students can take a lab class for academic credit to work on the team, about half the team members do so
The Cornell AXP team was started in winter of 2006 by Phillip Bell, MBA '07, who approached a Professor about starting a team after he read an article about the AXP
They are planning a mainstream-class vehicle for the AXP, and they will make the design public ("give it away")
References: Cornell AXP Wikipedia Popular Mechanics XPC Interview CornellSun 1 2 Geo Metro

Mule Vehicle Stats

MPGe	44 MPG during 2008 Green Grand Prix
Weight	2370 lbs
L x W x H (ft)	12.4 x 5.1 x 4.4
HP	?
Range	?
Battery Info	? kWh lead-acid 570 lbs
Charge Time	?h (?V * ?A)
Motor	?
Engine	1L Suzuki turbo I3
Cd x Frontal Area	<0.37 x 25 ft^2