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>> Purdue student engineers have created a solution
to skyrocketing gas prices --
a solar-powered car that gets the equivalent
of 2,200 miles per gallon.
>> I think that gets a lot of visibility and gets a lot
of people talking and thinking, hey,
the electric car is the next best thing.
The pure efficiency of the vehicle itself,
it's what we're going to start seeing in the future, no doubt.
>> The Solartechs commuter car recently claimed the urban
concept championship in the show, Eco Marathon.
>> Really, before we went to the race,
we had absolutely no testing.
The night before, we finally got it running,
took it out on the road.
But that's part of the fun part of the challenge.
>> Purdue's solar racing team won the 2010 championship
with a track bound experimental vehicle
that got nearly 5,000 miles per gallon.
>> Getting a real-life experience
and having the dedication, a lot of our members and a lot
of the team members, the students here, spend more time
on the car, myself included, than in actual class work,
for better, for worse, but it's fun.
It's fun, and it's rewarding.
>> With headlights, turn signals, brakes, suspension,
two trunks and seatbelts,
the 90,000 dollar prototype can be street legal.
The solar panels generate so much juice they threaten
to overload the car's batteries.
To consume the excess electricity, the team is looking
to add next year, air conditioning
and neon under-glow lighting.
Who says being green can't be comfortable and stylish?
At Purdue University, I'm Jim Shank.