The crew at the Automotive X-Prize are still plugging away at making the $10 million prize competition a reality beginning in 2009. Here at the Los Angeles Auto Show, they have announced the first 22 officially registered teams for the competition. While most of the competitors fall into the category of independents, there are a few names you might recognize. Among those are Tata Motors, Aptera, MDI and Zap. Tata is entering a battery-powered version of the Nano and a hybrid version of the Indica. MDI will be trotting out its compressed air powered car and Zap will go for the gold with its 3-wheeled Alias. Of the entrants so far, eleven are in the mainstream class with the rest going for the alternative class. Teams can still enter until early 2009. After that the competitors will go on the road to a series of cities for the actual competition. The list of cities that will play host to the X-Prize will be announced in early 2009. Details after the jump.

[Source: Automotive x-Prize]

Remembered as the year that the Apple Macintosh first went on sale, Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire and Richard Petty won his 200th NASCAR race, 1984 was also when Craig Henderson and Bill Green finished building the Avion prototype. Designed to be as streamlined as possible and built on an aluminum chassis with a composite body, the car made the Guinness Book of Records by achieving 103.7 mpg on a West coast drive from Mexico to Canada. Now, more than 20 years later with an updated drivetrain, the Avion has smashed that mark and achieved 113.1 mpg on a 263 mile trip through the State of Washington. The run even included getting trapped in Seattle traffic. Twice.

The restored, updated version of the vehicle burns diesel and uses a 6-speed semi-automatic manual transmission from a Smart Fortwo. The Avion website claims it only requires 3 to 6 horsepower to maintain highway speed and should reach 100 mph. About the achievement Henderson said, "I am thrilled to be able to break our old record. This was a personal goal achieved for me and now we set our sites on the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE. We are in the process of building another car to compete and hopefully win the X PRIZE and we are seeking corporate or personal sponsorship to help us meet or goals". If you want your own Avion that might be possible as they say they are now "tooling up" to do a limited production run. Hit the jump to do the timewarp with a pair of videos, past and present, to see the Avion in action doing it mileage over-achieving thing.

[Source: Avion via JoeReal at GM-Volt forum]

Hold the presses! There is yet.another.enclosed.three-wheeled.vehicle.being developed in America. The Dagne from Revolution Motors is meant to be an "ultra-efficient, high-performance sustainable commuter vehicle" and will feature a serial-hybrid drivetrain. Though it does have lots in common with various other projects, the Dagne, named after the protagonist in in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", will separate itself from the herd by featuring all-wheel electric drive with steering, acceleration and and braking controlled via a joystick. If that doesn't make you say "Whoa!" then we won't even mention that it also does that whole front-wheels-tilting thing.

With series production planned for 2011, they have been testing a prototype since January and say that "development is proceeding smoothly and quickly." They also hope to have a limited edition single-seat, topless version available even earlier, in mid-2010. The Progressive Automotive X-Prize contender has has pretty nice performance targets. Its range is listed as 120 miles in electric mode, 600 miles as a hybrid. Top speed is an ambitious 120 mph with a 0 to 60 Mph of 5 seconds. Price is a very optimistic "under $20,000." If you want to follow their progress or learn more they have a blog. We look forward to seeing some video of this rolling video game in the future.

[Source: Revolution Motors via Aptera Forum]

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]

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg at the official start of the Auto X Prize.

Once all of the designers and teams get their ducks in a row and prep their vehicles for the cross-country portion of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize in 2009 and 2010, they're going to need places to go. For now, all we know is that the route will start in New York City in September 2009 and end in, well, somewhere in California I'm guessing. The X Prize organizers announced yesterday that "interest is high" in hosting some of the events in between the coasts, and listed 14 cities that have said they'd like to host a stage race: Albuquerque, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Denver, Indianapolis, New York, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis.

The stage races will take place over (likely) ten stops and each "will feature a driving competition over city, suburban and rural roads between 30 and 200 miles in length." The races will show that the 100 mpge cars can achieve their numbers under real-world conditions.

Another new tidbit: there are now 94 teams that want to participate in the competition. Seems likely that we'll have over 100 by the time the application deadline hits at the end of the summer.

[Source: X PRIZE Foundation]

John McCain's (R) call for a $300 million prize for better automotive battery is still making waves. The latest to raise a voice are the people who are already offering some prize money for cleaner cars: the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE. Of course, the AXP is a much smaller prize purse ($10m) and is for an entire car and production plans. Don Foley, the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE's executive director, has issued the following statement (read the entire release after the break):

We commend Senator McCain for recognizing that great innovations can arise from the spirit of competition. But creating a new battery is only part of a broader challenge to solve our country's energy crisis and dependence on foreign oil. We must also look seriously at developing new vehicles, especially those that are production capable. There's no single path to energy independence; we need to explore many different technologies, fuels and vehicles before the American public can determine the most practical, environmentally-friendly and energy conscious solution for the future. We commend all public and private sector efforts to bring attention to these issues, including those by our title sponsor Progressive, and we look forward to being a part of the solution.

So, it's not really a put down - the AXP wouldn't dare - but it does bolster the general criticisms that have been issued in response to McCain's idea that it just isn't well thought out. Democrats Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, for example, have both criticized McCain's proposal.

[Source: X PRIZE Foundation]

A month ago, Tata Motors announced they would be entering two vehicles in the Automotive X Prize. The company's involvement with the 100 mpge challenge has now deepened as Ratan Tata, the Chairman of Tata Sons (which owns Tata Motors, the maker of the Tata Nano, among other companies) has become a member of the X Prize Foundation's Board of Trustees. The President of BT Americas, Michael Boustridge, also joined the Board. The Board and the X Prize Foundation are in charge of more than just the Progressive Automotive X Prize, as the X Prize's "Revolution through Competition" model is also trying to find new ways to get back to the moon among other endeavors. Bios of both new Board members are available after the break.

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Based on an Audi R8 chassis and using a few currently-available components (like the air conditioner from an Audi A3), the new Electric RaceAbout (ERA) from Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia is getting ready to take part in the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The ERA is a lightweight (1,250 kg/2,750 lbs target weight) AWD electric vehicle that is expected to have a range of over 300 km (186 miles) and a top speed of over 200 kmh (124 mph). The goal is to make this vehicle reach that all-important 100+ mpge level with li-ion battery packs that will weigh somewhere between 350 and 570 kg (that's between 770 and 1,250 pounds. As a comparison, this is much heavier than the Chevy Volt's 350-400 pound packs). The carbon fiber body is moved by four electric in-wheel motors.

The ERA will be coming sometime next summer. The Institute of Design, Lahti Polytechnic and the Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia are working together on this vehicle. No estimated price is available for the Electric RaceAbout, but the newly unveiled website says it will be "Affordable (in sport vehicle range)." That would be nice, wouldn't it?


[Source: Electric RaceAbout, thanks to Janne M. for the tip!]

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]