Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Early February Automotive X PRIZE Roundup

The X PRIZE Foundation announces that Congress has passed a resolution applauding them for the Automotive X PRIZE. Now, how do we translate that good will into federal funding for X PRIZE style innovation prizes?

The Automotive X PRIZE blog has a new post on computing miles per gallon equivalent for electric hybrids. The comments note how important it is to improve the efficiency of the least-efficient vehicles compared to improving the efficiency of the most efficient vehicles. The Automotive X PRIZE itself recognized that point right from the beginning when they described why the prize picked 100 MPGe instead of something much higher. This point makes you wonder - should someone do an "Automotive X PRIZE" for 18-wheelers?

The Foundation also links to an article in the Wisconsin Radio Network about a local competitor in the AXP competition with a car called IngoCar.

The X PRIZE Cars blog, a great place to go for AXP information, continues with a very thorough news roundup and a post that features Valentin Technologies Ingo, the Wisconsin team I just mentioned. Here's their site.

Update (February 9): The X PRIZE Cars blog has a lot more already, even though this post isn't very old. There's a thought-provoking analysis of why the big automakers should, or shouldn't, compete in the AXP, news on Malcolm Bricklin's plan to set up dealer and parts infrastructure for plug-in hybrids, a new page on the Zap Alias, and a post on the press release about Congress applauding the Automotive X PRIZE with an interesting tidbit of information on AXP plans.