We're really high on the Automotive X Prize, and it was an easy choice as the number one upcoming green event. The Auto X Prize will be worth ten million, and is sponsored by Progressive Casualty Insurance. We've covered everything we know about the X Prize on these pages, and we've even got an entire category regarding the event, which ought to make it pretty easy to follow from here on out. Anyone got a favorite already?

We'll have full coverage from New York of the Automotive X Prize's new details in a few hours, but CNN has just announced that the total prize purse will be ten million dollars. That's the same as what was given for winning the Ansari X Prize, which sent private citizens into space. The title sponsor for the green car event will be Progressive Casualty Insurance Co., according to the AP. The ten million dollars will be split between the winners of the different Auto X Prize categories, one each for mainstream and alternative cars. The "mainstream cars" look normal (four wheels, at least) need to have room for at least four people with standard vehicle features (climate control, audio system and at least 10 cubic feet of cargo space) while hitting 60 mph in under 12 seconds. The last two requirements will be the toughest: 100 mph top speed with a 200 mile range. We'll have more later on what I now assume will be called the Progressive X Prize.

[Source: CNN, AP]

Do you remember the Loremo? It was a project for a car that with sporty looks could deliver a diesel consumption of 2 liters every 100 km - that is 117 mpg. Not bad! Well, the first road-ready prototype will be introduced at the Frankfurt Motorshow in September and although some of the specifications of the car won't be the same as the production model, this model will be very close to it. The current fuel mileage figures were obtained with computer simulation, so the working prototype will really have to prove that expectations are up to reality.

Loremo is expecting to participate at the California X-Prize-Foundation for cars able to run more than 100 miles on a gallon of fuel. The money would be very welcome to continue development because the Loremo team is saying that the model is almost ready for a production of 10,000 vehicles per year (a requisite of the prize).


Related:

• The Loremo: Never before has something German sipped so little

[Source: Auto-news.de]

The Automotive X-Prize has announced the first thirty-one teams to be accepted into their upcoming mileage competition and several of our favorite subject companies are on the list. Among the teams that have been accepted into the first round of competition are Tesla, Zap, and Phoenix Motorcars. Other teams that we have covered here that made the cut are Fuel Vapor Technology and Team Velozzi. According to organizers over 300 teams have expressed interest in the competition and are considering jumping in.

The goal of the competition is to create a commercially viable vehicle that can exceed 100 mpg gasoline equivalent based on a combination of well-to-tank analysis and tank-to-wheels actual vehicle performance. The real key here is the commercial viability. Teams have to demonstrate not just vehicle performance but a business plan showing that they can sell the vehicles in volumes of 10,000 or more annually. Preliminary competitions including peer reviews start in 2008 with the actual vehicle competitions in 2009.

[Source: Automotive X-Prize]

Sharing a bit of auto design wisdom with us on the latest AutoblogGreen podcast is Roberto Jerez, who gives us the skinny on Velozzi and their 200 mpg entry for the Auto X Prize. Plus, the highlights from recent news and we're still grooving to our new theme music.

UPDATE: transcript of the Q&A is available here.

More on Velozzi here:

• Team Velozzi developing Automotive X-Prize competitor

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