MAYOR NUTTER CELEBRATES WEST PHILLY HYBRID X TEAM AT PEP RALLY SEND-OFF

Philadelphia, June 16, 2010 – Today Mayor Michael A. Nutter celebrated the West Philly Hybrid X Team at a pep-rally held at City Hall’s Dilworth Plaza as they prepare to travel to Michigan for the Knockout Qualifying Stage of the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE competition. A student from the Hybrid X Team drove Mayor Nutter to the podium in the Team’s hybrid EVX GT, which can accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in under five seconds. rnrnThe Hybrid X Team is a team of high school students and educators from West Philadelphia High School’s Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering. The program has been successfully building competitive alternative fuel vehicles for over 10 years. rnrnThis year, the Hybrid X Team is entered in the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE competition. The competition will award $10 million in prizes in September 2010 to teams that win a rigorous competition for clean, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 MPG energy equivalent (MPGe). The mission of the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE is to inspire a new generation of viable, super-efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change.rnrn111 teams, including multi-national corporations, well-funded start-ups and major universities, entered the competition. Of the original entrants, only 22 remain. The West Philly Hybrid X Team, the only high school to enter, still has two cars in the competition, an affordable compact family sedan and a high-performance sports car. rnrn“The West Philly Hybrid X Team is another great example of what Philadelphia’s young people can achieve when they set their sights high and work together,” said Mayor Nutter. “The program teaches valuable green job skills to high school students, engages the community in energy use and air quality issues, and could potentially bring a new, clean-tech enterprise to the Navy Yard. I’m proud of the Hybrid X Team students for representing the ingenuity and resourcefulness of Philadelphia’s sustainability work on the national stage and I wish them the best of luck in the competition.”rnrnFor more information on the West Philly Hybrid X Team, visit http://www.evxteam.org, and for more information on the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE, visit http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org. The Hybrid X Team will be at the Michigan International Speedway for the Knockout round of the competition starting June 20, 2010.