The Open-Source Green Car /// VDS VisionThe Open-Source Green Car /// VDS Vision

Two years ago, MIT whiz-kids Robyn Allen and Anna Jaffe set their sights on India, where a $2500 car is just the beginning. "Over the next 30 years they'll buy an extra 90 million cars," Jaffe says. "So our thought was, Well, what if we could develop a vehicle that was much, much more efficient—that maybe hit 200 miles per gallon, that plugged into a grid, that was really designed around Indian needs and expectations and wants."

The two organized the Vehicle Design Summit, a global consortium of students working in teams to build a better car from the ground up, leveraging the collective brainpower of a new generation of engineers and the massive resources of their respective educational institutions. This summer, teams will rendezvous in Torino, Italy, to flesh out a final prototype for the VDS Vision 100, a six-passenger electric car powered by a gas generator. It's expected to get 100 miles per gallon and could be production ready in 2009.