Make that an affordable, plug-in electric car that achieves 100 miles per gallon “that a schoolteacher can afford.” That’s the claim, anyway, of Simon Hauger, a former West Philadelphia High School teacher who has worked over many years with his science students to develop and build 100-mpg cars and appared on NPR’s Talk of the Nation: Science Friday today.

This year, the West Philly Hybrid team is participating in the Progressive Auto X-Prize and say they can compete with the world’s largest automakers on that front.

NPR’s host Ira Flatow asks, “Why isn’t the government giving you that bailout money?… What would you do if you could get a million dollars?” Hauger says that his team has partnered with MBA students from Drexel University and created a viable business plan, with a car that can be built for $20,000.