While most of the Automotive X-Prize entrants are vehicles built from the ground up for maximum gas mileage, Poulsen Hybrid's entry takes a considerably different tact, with it consisting simply of a kit that can be attached to any old car. That kit consists of two hybrid electric motors with rare earth permanent magnets that (as you can see above) are mounted on the outside of the vehicle, which are tied to a 72V 120Ah Deep Cycle Lead Acid battery pack on the inside. According to Poulsen, once installed, the system effectively turns a front-wheel drive car into an all-wheel drive car, and results in a driving "effect" that is " equivalent to freewheeling down a 3% grade," with the accelerator needing to be depressed less or not at all to keep the car moving. Also unlike most other X-Prize competitors, Poulsen intends to make its kit available to the general public in the not to distant future, and for the relatively bargain price of $3,300, no less (add an extra $600 to that if you don't think you're up to installing it yourself).

[Via Autoblog Green]

Honda's already made more than a few attempts at energy efficient vehicles, but it looks like the company is far from running out of options, with it now touting a new so-called "heat harnessing hybrid" that it says can recapture more lost energy than conventional hybrids during highway driving. The key to that is a so-called Rankine cycle engine, which captures waste heat from the car's exhaust and puts it back to work to heat water, which gets converted to steam to power an electric generator, which in turn charges the car's battery pack. That basic idea, as you may have deduced, is hardly a new one, but Honda appears to have pushed things farther along than most, with its current prototype (a Honda Stream) boasting a 3.8% increase in efficiency when motoring along at 62 miles per hour, among other advantages. That's apparently not quite enough to convince Honda to put the technology to use in production vehicles, however, although it says that situation could change if they're able to boost the efficiency even further.

[Via Digg, image courtesy of EcoGeek]