X Prize Aims To Inspire Green Car Development
By John O'Dell March 21, 2008Auto X-Prize entries will include mainstream vehicles and fanciful concepts.
By Robert E. Calem, Contributor
New York --The Automotive X Prize competition, an effort to do for the green car what the original X Prize did for private space flight, was officially launched Thursday at the New York International Auto Show, where sample vehicles were displayed by four of the more than 60 teams from nine countries that will be vying for shares of a $10 million bounty.
The prize money was put up by Progressive Insurance, which has become the main sponsor in return for a name change: the competition is now the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize.
Additionally, the federal Department of Energy plans to provide a $3.5 million grant to fund a national education program organized around the competition in order to “inspire youth and the general public about the alternative vehicle and fuel options of the near future,” the X Prize Foundation announced.
Inspiring Entrepreneurs
The contest, developed over the past two and a half years by the non-profit foundation, has the lofty goal of inspiring entrepreneurs to develop a new generation of commercially viable automobiles with low emissions and fuel economy equivalent to 100 miles per gallon. The draft rules define low emissions as less than 200 grams (0.44 pounds) per mile of greenhouse gas emissions with other tailpipe emissions low enough to pass muster in all 50 states.
Commercially viable is defined as safe and affordable and readily able to be manufactured in a volume of at least 10,000 vehicles per year.
“We’re not interested in concept cars or kit cars,” Peter Diamandis, the foundation’s chairman and CEO, told Green Car Advisor.
Mainstream...Or Not
The competition has two classes that contestants may enter.
The first is for "mainstream" vehicles that “meet current consumer expectations for size and capability.” That means, Diamandis said, a car with four wheels and at least four seats.
The second class is for “alternative” vehicles that are focused on innovative technologies. They must have at least three wheels and two seats – no motorcycles or scooters.
VentureOne three-wheeler is an announced competitor in 'alternative' class.
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based foundation says its qualification process calls for a thorough assessment of contestant vehicles’ safety, cost and features, as well as of the sponsors' business plans.
Two Races
Entries will compete in two races, scheduled for late next year or early in 2010, designed to test their efficiency, performance and durability in real-world conditions. The races will cover city and mountain roads, and will include speed and distance segments. They are designed to be technology and fuel neutral, according to foundation literature.
The foundation said in a prepared statement that it began the competition because “there are limited mainstream consumer choices for clean, super-efficient vehicles that meet market needs for price, size, capability, image, safety and performance,” and “technical innovation has been spent on increased vehicle power, acceleration, and weight, rather than on increased fuel economy.”
Moreover, the statement says, “Oil consumption is unsustainable. It endangers our health and the economic, political and social stability of the world.”
According to the DOE, the U.S. consumes between 20 and 21 million barrels of oil each day, with two-thirds of that used for transportation.
On Display
The sample entries on display at the New York show are a full-scale model of the VentureOne, a three-wheel plug-in hybrid from Venture Vehicles of Beverly Hills, Calif.; the EVX “Hybrid Attack,” a biodiesel and lithium-ion battery-powered hybrid four-wheeler from West Philadelphia High School’s Hybrid X Team; the Alé, a gasoline-powered three-wheeler reconfigured to be able to run on gasoline fumes, from British Columbia's Fuel Vapor Technologies; and a model of a two-door, three-passenger Air Car from MDI Group of Nice, France and Zero Pollution Motors of New Paltz, New York, that is powered by compressed air.
West Philadelphia High's 2006 team built stunning hybrid for Tour del Sol.
MDI and ZPM will enter two vehicles in the Automotive X Prize competition – the two-door in the alternative class, and a six-seat four-door vehicle in the mainstream class.
Whether or not they win, the two companies already are planning to introduce the mainstream vehicle for sale in the U.S. in 2010, the companies say, adding that they expect it to achieve better than 100 miles per gallon-equivalent and speeds over 90 miles per hour.
Others expected to enter vehicles include electric-car makers Tesla Motors, which started production this week of its $98,000 battery-electric roadster, and Aptera, which is planning a three-wheeled EV that looks a lot like a wingless fuselage of a small airplane. Both are from California.
A complete list of the 60 entries that have signed letters of intent to compete can be found on the X-Prize Foundation's website.
Major automakers have not yet signed up for the competition but are expected to once the formal rules have been drawn up and published
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