by KYW's Paul Kurtz

A group of West Philadelphia students have designed and built an electric car for a contest held by Ford Motor Company.

The lime green, three-wheeled vehicle was being shown off in the West Philadelphia High School "automotive academy" -- less than ten feet from an old Model T.
    
Ford is looking for a vehicle that be as innovative and revolutionary as Henry Ford's breakthrough vehicle of 100 years ago.
   
Simon Hauger led 15 West Philly High and three Drexel University students in the whirlwind project:

"The program ran, I would say... on a typical week we put in 30 to 40 hours."

And Hauger marvels at what they came up with:

"It's all electric, so the electric motor drives the two front wheels.  There are no mechanical brakes on the front wheels -- the electric motor acts as the brake as well.  We have one mechanical brake on the rear wheel, so the vehicle weighs a total of (only) a thousand pounds."

And it gets about 120 miles to the charge.

The body is made of bamboo and resin -- good for aerodynamics, according to 16 year Philly Hybrid X team member Justin Wells:
 
"I helped lay the bamboo fiber and the resin. We painted it to make it as smooth as possible."

The West Philadelphia team is competing against five universities from around the world.