Background
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My name is Rami Bedewi. This website documents my project the One Gallon Challenge which I
worked on from October 2010 to March 2012 when I was a high school student at Georgetown
Preparatory School in North Bethesda Maryland. Ever since I was a child, I have enjoyed cars; and
over the years my interest in cars has shifted from mere appearance to performance, efficiency,
and new technologies introduced into the automotive industry. This has led to me to wonder why is
it that most cars cannot travel much more than 30 miles on one gallon of fuel. I have been thinking
about this for sometime now and became intrigued by the X-Prize competition in 2009 during
which many companies competed to see who could create the most efficient, commercially viable,
car. The winners of the competition were able to achieve over 100 miles per gallon but it appeared
to be on track conditions. These factors inspired me to pursue the One Gallon Challenge.
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Project Goal
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The goal of the project is to build a single person
hybrid-electric commuter car using off-the-shelf
components that is capable of achieving over 200
miles per gallon on normal road conditions. The
challenge is to drive the car from New York City to
Washington DC, a distance of approximately 240
miles, using a combination of a battery powered
electric motor and a generator with one gallon tank of
fuel. The drive is mainly on secondary roads and
averaging a speed of 30-35 miles per hour.
I completed the One Gallon Challenge on March 12,
2012. Read more about the trip here.
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