For the son of a General Motors designer -- born and raised in Detroit in the final years of the "big, bigger and biggest" age of American cars -- creating a vehicle that doesn't even have a combustion engine would seem an unlikely fate.
But in an era of nearly $4 gas, Jason Hill figured he had to do things a new way.
That's why his cars are different. They're sleeker. They're more slippery. They weigh less and use recycled materials. In a word, they're greener. And they don't look like anything else on the road.
"I decided I want to be part of the solution," said Hill, who turned to green design after more than a dozen years as a designer for Daimler and Porsche, working on the kind of sexy, muscle-car projects that most car freaks only dream of. "Anybody can build a hot rod. Do we really need another 200-mph sports car?"
As president and founder of the Long Beach-based firm Eleven, Hill holds the pole position of environmentally conscious vehicle design. Among his recent projects: the futuristic-looking Aptera, a three-wheeled, all-electric car that can go 120 miles on a charge, and a yacht with a solar-panel roof supplying juice to its electric motors.
Meanwhile, as an instructor at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, his alma mater, the 41-year-old Hill is training a new generation of designers to think differently about vehicles while maintaining a balance of form and function.
"He's a big inspiration among young designers," said Eric Noble, president of Car Lab, an automotive consulting firm in Orange. "He's worked for carmakers. He's gone his own road. And he's not considered a sellout."
The Aptera would seem to demonstrate that. Hill was assigned by the Carlsbad, Calif., start-up in 2006 to design a car that could cut down on wind resistance yet still be attractive.
"When I hired Jason, I said, 'You will have carte blanche. You can do anything you want to do to this vehicle as long as you don't increase drag,' " said Steve Fambro, Aptera's founder and chief executive.
Less than a year later, Hill delivered. With its low, three-wheeled stance and a shape akin to a raindrop, the Aptera prototype is five times more slippery in the wind than a Toyota Prius and 25 times more than a Hummer, Fambro said. At 55 mph, the Aptera has less drag than a 10-speed bike.
Hill incorporated carpet made from recycled soda bottles and seat coverings made of 100% post-industrial and post-consumer material.
