SEP 16

This morning, the X Prize Foundation announced the winners of the $10 million Progrssive Insurance X Prize. The competition goal is to "build a car that gets at least 100 MPGe in real world driving and is safe, affordable and desirable to offer consumers more efficient vehicle choices. Over 111 teams and 146 vehicles were entered in the competition, and this field was narrowed down to 15 finalists.

The winning prize was divided among three categories:

The winner in the mainstream class for a 4 passenger, 4 wheel vehicle and recipient of $5 million of the prize is Edison 2 with a score of 102.5 MPGe for the Very Light Car, a very lightweight, aerodynamic vehicle with a small, 250cc internal combstion engine that uses E85 ethanol fuel.

Alternative class winner for a 2 passenger vehicle in a side-by-side configuration and recipient of $2.5 million is Li-Ion Motors with a score of 187.0 MPGe for the Wave II an aerodynamic, battery-electric vehicle.

Alternative class winner for a 2 passenger vehicle in a tandem configuration and recipient of $2.5 million is Team X-Tracer with a score of 187.6 MPGe for the E-Tracer, an enclosed, electric motorcycle with stabilizer wheels for parking and low speeds.

Rating the vehicles with MPGe (Miles per Gallon or gasoline equivalent energy) was a metric developed by the X Prize and Consumer Reports to allow the evaluation of vehicles that used different kinds of fuels. The MPGe measurement "offers consumers the ability to make an apples-to-apples comparison of this next generation of vehicles that will use a variety of energy sources and fuels with the conventional cars they drive today."

Comments (5)

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inadequate standards
written by Robert Camba, September 16, 2010

None of the winning vehicles appears to promise large sales. Shouldn't the X-Prize have considered whether an entrant have a chance of succeeding in the market?

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congrats to GM and Ford, Nissan etc...
written by Timothy Dubois, September 16, 2010

The winner is an obscure prototype that will take a long time to get to production. GM, Ford and Nissan will go to market with their alternative vehicles and drown out these winners who will take a long time to move their prototypes into full production. There were a handful of production ready competitors who could have been ready to move their vehicles into production almost immediately if not already there. I guess I'm biased and disappointed because I was rooting for Aptera.

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Very sad
written by Adam Ward, September 19, 2010

I think Aptera could've used the funds to launch the already road worthy vehicle. These other models will quickly find that road safety isn't going to allow them the streamlining they took for granted. Aptera is way ahead of it's competition and should've been awarded some recognition and launching money.

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Guess best man, strike that, vehicle doesn't come in first!
written by Poly Endrasik, September 22, 2010

Thought the Aptera had the best going but somehow I think we will still see production Apteras on the roads of America before any of the other finalists!

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Dissapointed
written by Rayray, November 02, 2010

I guess the reason Aptera didnt win is because its average speed on the race track didnt hold up. Not sure why a race track was ever in the equation. We are looking to save gas not burn it asap. Doesn't ethenol require corn which in turn will use tons of petrochemical pesitcides and drive up the price of a commodity? Electric cars are connected to coal fired plants, oil fired and nuke plants, so thats not helping any. Guess we will have to wait until 2030 to get a car that doesnt burn fossil fuel.

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