With more fuel-efficient vehicles being pitched as key to a better future – at least from an environmental standpoint – two major green enterprises are launching student contests in an effort to breed awareness of the need to improve the efficiency of both cars and the electric-charging systems that may help propel them. ———- Better Place, which plans to market this elaborate battery swap station, is challenging graduate design students to come up with a hands-free EV charger that costs less than $1,000. ———- Better Place , the closely held electric-vehicle charging services provider, is awarding 65,000 euros ($96,000) in prizes in a global contest for graduate level design-school teams to come up with what the company deems to be the best hands-free electric-charging systems whose materials costs less than $1,000. Progressive Corp., one of the largest U.S. auto insurers, said that it's launching a contest for high school students to design dashboard instrumentation that helps drivers change their driving habits to boost their gas mileage. ———- High school students are asked to put on their thinking caps and design a dashboard instrument that helps drivers get better mileage. Ford's professional engineers came up with this “smart gauge' system in its Fusion hybrid. ——— – (The company apparently doesn't think that the highly touted multi-information display panels in the new Toyota Prius'
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Green Car Contests Challenging Students to Think of EV Charging, Eco-Driving