The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (Greenfield, MA) announced results for this year's Tour de Sol, the Great American Green Transportation Festival, after a real-world road test from Washington to New York. A Greenest Vehicle Award was awarded to two vehicles that tied. A Honda Insight entered by Drive to Work (Bedminster, NJ) and a Toyota Prius entered by S&S Auto Sports (Tulsa, OK). Both hybrid-electric vehicles demonstrated an average of 55mpg over the 300-mile course. In the prototype division, the prize for greenest light-duty vehicle went to West Philadelphia (PA) High School for its battery-electric Saturn that achieved a 180mpg fuel efficiency.
A Greenest Vehicle Award also went to the Climate Cooler II, an electric-powered motor scooter entered by the United Nations Environmental Program, which demonstrated 280mpg of fuel efficiency. The AVS22 hybrid-electric bus from Advanced Vehicle Systems won honors in the production division's heavy-duty category. Other top finishers in the prototype division included: Hybrid - Team Paradyne from the University of Tulsa; Battery-Electric - Sojourner 1 from West Philadelphia High School; Two-Person Solar - Solar Black Bear from the University of Maine; One-Person Solar - Zodiac from the West Irondequoit High School in New York; One-Person - La Clean Machine from Personal Electric Transports in Hawaii; and Hydrogen - Electric Blue from the Eco Living Fellowship in New Jersey.
