Team ULV-3, lead by Chris Taylor of CTMS, Inc. with facilities in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., are focusing their 30+ years of automotive engineering, business, project management, and professional motorsports experience to campaign a light weight, medium hybrid vehicle in the 2010 Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize Competition. Chris and all team members have long been involved with designing, fabricating and fielding high technology race cars. Their current focus is to apply these skills to the design of a light weight, high performance, fuel efficient main stream vehicle that will have worldwide consumer acceptance and can be manufactured in large numbers.

Recently, ULV-3 elected the Lotus Evora as their X PRIZE competition vehicle to showcase their unique Multi-Fuel, High Speed Diesel Electric (HSDe) engine concepts and automotive designs in the new 2010 Lotus Evora platform. Team ULV-3 and Lotus share a strong, common philosophical DNA and history of working with industry leaders to improve the performance of existing technologies for the automotive, aeronautical, and motorsports industries, which makes this relationship a natural fit.

Regarded as a world leader in light weight chassis systems and automotive manufacturing techniques, the Lotus Evora provides the team with one of the most advanced light weight chassis design options available. ULV-3 believes this new Lotus Evora platform provides the most practical management approach to competing in a time constrained environment and the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE goal “to inspire a new generation of viable, super-efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change.” In the very near future, development, availability, and use of a variety of non-fossil fuels will enable the US to greatly reduce our dependence on the supply of international oil.

The lessons learned during the competition will significantly advance Multi-Fuel HSDe, electric propulsion, and Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) concepts. Team ULV-3 expects the X PRIZE competition to be an extremely valuable platform toward achieving the ultimate goal of producing 10,000, Multi-Fuel, HSDe cars per year within five years. Beyond the competition, ULV-3’s engineers will continue to develop engines capable of utilizing multiple fuels simultaneously on the same platform, update their designs to accommodate emerging technologies, evaluate alternative vehicle platforms, and seek additional business opportunities. The media attention generated by this highly visible event will provide ample market exposure to attract funding partners for sufficient capitalization to bring this exciting technology to full production.

Team ULV-3 is proud to be an Official Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE Contender and welcomes the opportunity to participate in this revolutionary event.