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Faculty and undergraduate students at the Vehicle Research Institute developed the parallel electric hybrid Viking 45 to compete in the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The contest challenged auto manufacturers to build vehicles that could achieve a gasoline equivalent fuel efficiency of 2.35 liter per 100 km while meeting a subset of U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission standards. The contest offered a $10 million purse to encourage participation. Viking 45 features a 50 kW, three cylinder gasoline engine coupled with a 23 kW electric motor. A 9.6 kWh lithium polymer battery pack allows the vehicle to travel more than 100 km at 100 km/hr. Carbon fiber composite vacuum assisted resin transfer techniques were developed to demonstrate the potential for low volume (10,000 units/year) production. The monocoque chassis demonstrated carbon fiber honeycomb for impact attenuation structures to manage front and side impacts.