After spending $160,000 and more than a year designing, building and testing a fuel-efficient hybrid electric vehicle, students at UC Davis are confident that their entry in a national competition June 6 will help determine the next generation of cars. "Our new vehicle has already demonstrated in tests that the hybrid concept is fuel efficient and clean running," says project adviser Andrew A. Frank, a UC Davis professor of mechanical engineering. UC Davis is one of 30 U.S. and Canadian universities selected to build new vehicles that use electric battery power, with an auxiliary power unit fueled by a conventional engine. "Our students transferred much of the technologies learned from last year's project in which they set an American record for gasoline efficiency," says Frank. The mechanical engineering students' entry is capable of driving 60 miles at 60 mph and more than 100 miles at lower speeds by using batteries. The vehicle is also equipped with a high-performance, quick-accelerating gasoline engine. Held in Detroit, the competition is sponsored by the Ford Motor Co., the U.S. Department of Energy and the Society of Automotive Engineers.