Following Friday's report of the agreement between GM and CARB on the status of the Volt, the Automotive X Prize took stock of the deal and issued its statement on the possibility of a 100-MPG rating for the highly-anticipated car. While praising what GM is doing with the Volt, the X Prize also recommended that the EPA, "consider adopting MPGe as a unit of measure that would more accurately reflect fuel consumption of alternative energy vehicles, and we welcome further discussions with them on this topic." We all know that one of the X Prize's big challenges is how to rate the many different fuel/energy types in the cars that will compete in the $10 million contest, and AXP executive director Don Foley said in a statement that, "Reliance on an MPG standard alone will soon be outdated and will not accurately reflect the need for higher fuel efficiency." More details after the break.

[Source: X Prize]

Sometimes, people on the green fringe are called some not-so-nice names, with "crazy" being one of the more mild. But, if you're the kind of greenie who revels in the wacky, perhaps you've got an idea you'd like to share with the world and you're sick of yelling it from the highway overpass. Right now would be a good time to get your idea out there, because the mainstream X Prize Foundation is looking for "Crazy Green Ideas" and is willing to pay $25,000 for them. Well, for one of them at least.

The X Prize Foundation, which is putting together the Progressive Auto X Prize, today announced a video contest called "What's Your Crazy Green Idea?" that has a $25,000 prize for "the best video proposing a new, world-changing X PRIZE in the field of Energy and the Environment." Use dreams to power Segways? Capture energy from people typing on a keyboard to power the computer? Harness the energy from unladen swallows or migrating coconuts? These are all fair game for the crazy idea contest. Whether they'll win - well, that's up to the X Prize folks.

The short version of the rules is that they need to be two-minutes long, posted to YouTube soon (winners will be announced in December) and must answer the following three questions:

1. What is the specific prize idea?
2. What is the Grand Challenge or world-wide problem that you are trying to solve?
3. How will this prize benefit humanity?

Submit your videos here. More details after the break.

[Source: X Prize]

As predicted, the Automotive X Prize crossed the century mark for teams signed up to compete in the "Ultimate Fuel Economy Challenge." While we know that not all of these teams consider themselves to be real contenders, the fact that there are so many people ready to spend so much time and energy thinking about a 100+mpge vehicle is pretty astounding.

Early next year, organizers will begin weeding out teams that don't qualify for the next round. The X Prize foundation says that over 120 teams, from 28 states and 17 countries, have already signed up for the competition, which will kick off next year and contains a cross-country stage race that will hit up to ten cities. There's no word on how many teams might be left after the pruning, but they'll certainly bear watching. Undeclared teams have until January 1, 2009 to sign up.

[Source: X Prize Foundation]

If the Automotive X Prize has caught your attention and you'd like to do more than read about it, good news: the X Prize Foundation is hiring. As Cristin Lindsay, the senior director of the Progressive Automotive X Prize, told AutoblogGreen, these are four key positions and I'm thinking there's probably at least one of our readers who'd make a good Team Development and Relations director, a Sponsorship Activation and Relations director, a Education Programs director or an Executive Assistant. The hires are part of a doubling of the Auto X Prize team in the coming months, a move that certainly implies things are going well in the search for the 100 mpge, mass market car. One requirement that's the same among all of these jobs is that they are located in Santa Monica, California. I don't think you'll get moved to the head of the pack if you tell them you read AutoblogGreen, but it couldn't hurt.

Following up on the post the other day about Popular Mechanics' attempt to rank the top ten Automotive X Prize teams, reader and tipster Manu wrote, "My bet for #1 is Poulsen Hybrid. It's not on the list and it's never been mentioned on ABG" (he also has his own take on the Poulsen Hybrid here). True enough, we have been remiss in covering this particular and we figured it was time to change that. I mean, what if this team happens to win and we weren't there from the beginning? Shameful. Of course, there are 60+ teams in the competition, and there are many we haven't covered. We should, but that's a post for another day.

Actually, we already missed the beginning. Poulsen hybrid plan started (I think, based on the website) last year, and the general idea is to take an existing ICE car and convert it to a plug-in electric hybrid with mileage in the 100 mpge range. The system adds two Poulsen Hybrid electric motors that use rare earth permanent magnets and are rated at 5kW or 7hp onto the outside of your car and then adds a 72V 120Ah Deep Cycle Lead Acid battery pack (with six batteries inside) and an onboard charger to the vehicle. As Manu writes, the benefits to this system include technology that is here today (June 2008 is the expected debut) and that Alpha-Core is not a new company, so funding issues shouldn't hold the Poulsen system back. The device costs $3,300, with another $600 for professional installation. Poulsen Hybrid, Inc. is a company based in Shelton, Connecticut and is connected to Alpha-Core, a division of Bridgeport Magnetics, Inc. So, whaddya think?

[Source: Poulsen, h/t to Manu]

New York's mayor Bloomberg standing by the Hybrid X.

We're a long way from determining the winner - if there ever is one - in the Progressive Automotive X Prize. I mean, the race only got started (officially) at this year's New York Auto Show. Still, there are 64 teams that have signed a "letter of intent" to participate in the contest and Popular Mechanics thought it was time to rank the top ten teams, the ones that PM thinks have the best chance to win.

So, who does PM name as the ten best teams? Well, the Philly high school team is on the list (their Hybrid X is pictured above), as are Aptera and Loremo and Tesla Motors and six other teams that will be very familiar to regular AutoblogGreen readers. For now, these nine teams are all solid choices. Wait, nine? Yeah, I'm not convinced that PM is right to add Hybrid Technologies to the Top Ten. Hybrid Technologies is having troubles selling the vehicles they have now (even with reduced prices). PM says that Hybrid Technologies "has already made the 100-mile-per-charge dream a reality" and has "real-world experience in development, marketing and manufacturing." Well, sure, but that didn't make the PT Cruiser taxi a success. Check out PM's list for yourself.


See more images after the jump.

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 had a heap of posts on the Progressive Automotive X Prize (that still doesn't quite roll off the tongue) following the big announcement from New York last week. In the flurry of posts, it may have been easy for someone who doesn't check AutoblogGreen with an F5-trigger finger fanaticism might have missed some of the big news. Therefore, after the jump, you'll find a list of all the posts we did about the Auto X Prize from New York. The video above features the highlights of the press conference, and all the pictures we took can be found sprinkled throughout the post. If you do have that itchy F5-finger, then check out the video, since it's new. After the jump you'll also a lot of links to videos and press releases from the X Prize Foundation itself.

Of the 60+ teams that have signed a letter of intent to participate in the Progressive Automotive X Prize, about 15 were on hand at the New York Auto Show. With only four cars on stage, it's easy to calculate that some teams arrived sans vehicle. The group from Motive Industries had just a little folded flyer to show what they've been working on for their entry vehicle. The basic idea for the as-yet-unnamed Motive vehicle is an electric car with an on-board ICE for range extension. The real challenge for Motive will be convincing everyone that "filling up" via quick, robot-aided battery exchanges are the way to go. Four-passenger and full size with biomaterials in the body panels and elsewhere, the vehicle is just now moving off of the design pages. Motive's Darren McKeage and Nathan Armstrong were in New York to give the public a first glimpse of this new car. You can view the flyer in the gallery below and listen to the duo by clicking play.

click to enlarge

If the person being interviewed in the picture above looks a little bit young, well, that's because he is. He's a student at the West Philadelphia High School Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, which is fielding the youngest team of entrants in the Progressive Automotive X Prize.

I had a chance to speak with the teacher in charge of the program, Simon Hauger, who talked about the three (or four, depending on how you count) green vehicles the team has worked on over the past nine years. From an early converted Jeep(s) to the Hybrid Attack you see in the photo gallery, the team knows a few things about greening up a ride. The team took a K1 Attack and modified it to biofueled hybrid that won the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's Tour de Sol twice. Can high school students win the Auto X Prize? They certainly have the passion, as Hauger describes. For the X Prize, the team is working on another vehicle, this one a plug-in diesel hybrid. The team says the car will exceed the 100 mpge requirement "without sacrificing style, safety or affordability." That's the dream, right?