In the general hub-bub before the Automotive X-Prize kick-off event yesterday, we cornered Progressive Insurance's President and CEO Glenn Renwick for a few brief moments to get his thoughts on the prize. I mean, it's his company that is putting up the ten million dollars in prize money, so you can bet he's thought long and hard about paying someone that much for a freakin' car. While insurers are not usually known for being happy about seeing money go out the door, Renwick said he hopes the company does indeed fork over the money at the end of the race. Renwick said (rightly, IMHO) that he considers the sponsorship to be simply another way of advertising, and as such is coming out of the company's general advertising budget. You might now see fewer Progressive ads on TV, but you'll be seeing the name much more here on ABG. Fair trade? That's not for me to decide.

Look at it from another angle: if we don't figure out a way to move to highly-efficient personal vehicles (and higher gas prices continue climbing as a reflection of dwindling supplies), what would Progressive have to insure? This might be the best $10m they ever spend. Give Renwick a listen using the flash widget below.

Before this release gets too much older (traveling sure eats int blogging time, I'll tell you that), let's confirm what was announced today at the New York Auto Show about the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The full statement can be found after the jump, but here's a bulleted list of highlights:

• NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg said some really nice thing about the prize, and his city will kick off the first stage of the competition in September 2009 (patience, everyone).
  
• The prize is indeed $10m and is being put up by the Progressive insurance company. Winners will split the money 3:1, with the mainstream category winners getting $7.5 million and the alternative class winner walking away with $2.5 million.
  
• Over 60 teams have signed a "letter of intent" to participate in the contest. The full list is included in the release, but the name that surprised me the most was Goodwin-Young "Linc Volt." That's right, everyone's competing against Neil Young. Is it even fair? That guy rocks, but sadly wasn't in New York today.
  
• Applications for official participants will be accepted starting in two months time, and will be accepted for two or three months. Get your forms filled out ASAP, is how I read that. This things on the go.
  
• We're still waiting for things like the final rules document and a list of host cities for the cross-country race.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a lot of interviews, video and audio from the event. There was a lot of excitement about this award, and I think we captured the vibe. Let us know when it goes up. More after the jump.

While wandering around near the Automotive X-Prize booth, look what we stumbled onto: MDI's air car. The green plastic-y version that had just been uncovered - I think for a video team's camera - bears only slight resemblance to the rendering that appeared on the X-Prize screen. It looks even less like the previous version of the Air Car that we've seen before. We'll be sitting down with the people behind the Air Car later today to figure out just what it is we're looking at here.


And look at the cars still snug under the covers. Well, kind of snug. I'm pretty sure I see a CarverOne, don't I? We'll know more in a bit.

This is a post for all of the American city officials we have who read AutoblogGreen (or readers who know someone in city government). The Automotive X Prize is looking for cities in America to host stages of the fuel-efficient vehicle race in 2009-2010. An official Request for Proposal (RFP) will be released at the Detroit Auto Show in the next few days.

What will your city get for hosting a stage? Publicity, mostly. The race will go through "ten U.S. cities while being broadcast to a global audience in 2009 and 2010, building consumer demand for vehicles in the competition and demonstrating many practical, clean and affordable vehicle options. This opportunity represents a visual, hands-on forum for Host Cities and individual administrations to drive public behavior toward reducing environmental impact."

If you want to be a part of the race but don't happen to work for an American city, don't worry. The organizers are
"seeking national, regional and local sponsors to underwrite the stage race competition," which means they'll be happy to take your money. Details after the jump.

Related:

• Update from the Automotive X Prize team
• AutoblogGreen exclusive Q&A with the Auto X Prize's Mark Goodstein

[Source: Auto X Prize]

Click on the Loremo for a high-res gallery

After the success of the original Ansari X-Prize, the X-Prize Foundation started creating new X-prizes in areas like medicine and cars. The Automotive X-Prize was announced in 2006 and in April of this year, the organizers released the first draft of the rules at the New York Auto Show. While numerous high-mileage car competitions have been held for decades, the X-Prize is distinctly different. Many previous competitions have yielded tiny little stream-liners running on bicycle wheels with tiny engines. While these vehicles have yielded efficiency of hundreds or thousands of miles per gallon they weren't very useful.

The goal of the X-Prize is to produce vehicles that got the equivalent of at least 100 mpg of gasoline and could be sold in volumes of at least 10,000 a year profitably. Two classes were defined, a mainstream one for vehicles with a minimum of four wheels and four seats and a second alternative class for vehicles with at least two seats. In August an initial list of thirty-one entries was announced by the foundation. The first batch of entries run the gamut from names that will be familiar to readers of this site, such as Tesla and Phoenix to home-builts like Maine Automotive X. We decided to take a look at some of these teams, and you can see more information and plenty more picture galleries after the jump.