As promised, here are the audio files from Tuesday's TechKnow: Alternative Fuel Cars forum in Ann Arbor. You can read my write up of the event here, but if it's direct-from-the-horse's-mouth information you're looking for, this is the post for you. Each of the individual presentations is between 8 and 12 minutes long, and the two hour-long files are also included for your listening pleasure.

• Mark Goodstein, Automotive X Prize
• Chuck Gulash, VP of research and material engineering at the Toyota Technical Center
• Nancy Gioia, director of sustainable motor technologies and hybrid vehicles at Ford
• Larry Burns, VP of research and development at GM
• David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research

• Complete audio of all the presenters in one MP3 file (one hour)
• Complete Q&A session (one hour)

The TechKnow forum on Alternative Fuel Cars in Ann Arbor last night featured some of the green car industry's biggest names and an appreciative audience of about 500 people. Moderated by Jean Jennings, president of Automobile Magazine, the two-hour event featured one hour of formal presentations by five well-spoken presenters and then a free-wheeling Q&A session with the audience. That's where the good stuff happened.

If you read any of the previews of the forum, you'll have noticed that there were supposed to be six main presenters. Jennings said that Tesla Motor's Martin Eberhard was in London for an "emergency meeting" with Lotus, but Tesla's Darryl Siry assured AutoblogGreen that the agenda for the meeting had been set long ago, it was just the timing that needed to be changed. So no big news there, apparently.

Click through after the jump to read the AutoblogGreen write-up of the event, and we'll have audio up later today.

The X Prize group has yet to finalize their rules and prize for the upcoming Auto X Prize event. While we wait (and we are waiting, because there was the suggestion earlier this year that the rules would be out at the end of 2006, but all we know now is that the groups has "made a lot of progress on the rules for the prize as we reach a pivotal stage of our planning process." The rules will now be released in early 2007), the Auto X Prize team sent out an email update about where things stand earlier today.

The email says that the the goal of the Auto X Prize is still to award a "large cash purse" to the automotive engineering team that can build a "clean, super-efficient, production-capable vehicle." There will be an endurance race with the vehicles that pass the first round of hurdles and "the qualified City and Highway vehicles with the best overall race time will split the prize purse."

You can read the entire message – including information on fundraising, possible entrants, and news of the prize's endorsement by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) – after the jump. And, in case you missed it, check out AutoblogGreen's interview with Mark Goodstein of the Auto X Prize Team.

Related:

• alé goes for X-Prize
• AutoblogGreen exclusive Q&A with the Auto X Prize's Mark Goodstein

[Source: The Automotive X PRIZE Team]

In 2004, the spaceplane SpaceShipOne won ten million dollars in the Ansari X Prize. Following the resounding technological and media success of that launch, other X Prizes were put into motion, including the Automotive X Prize. At the end of July, the Auto X Prize's website went live, but a lot of information on the Prize has not yet been released. Mark Goodstein is Executive Director of the Auto X Prize, and we tracked him down to get more details. Goodstein answered AutoblogGreen's questions about the Auto X Prize, the future of driving green and Goodstein hopes for a turbo charged dilithium crystal flux capacitor car.

ABG: There was a lot of media interest in the space X Prize, both the competition and the winner. With all the attention being paid to our addiction to oil and high gas prices, it seems almost impossible that there won't be a lot of attention focused on the Automotive X Prize. What sort of response have you been getting so far to the prize?
Goodstein: The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Certainly, the intense media focus on oil addiction, global warming, high gas prices, conflict in the Middle East, alternative fuels, etc. is fertile ground for launching this prize. From an industry perspective, we have been able to engage people from all sides of this issue, including big auto, regulatory, political, design, environment, media, science, start-ups, etc. They have all been helpful and positive, not to mention skeptical and cynical. Not surprising, really. In fact, encouraging. Frankly, if there weren't skepticism, this wouldn't be a challenge. Plus, the public seems ready to support and demand real change. Regardless of the person or their position, almost all have said that this is the right thing to do at the right time.
Creating this prize is an incredible challenge, but a challenge we're up to.