Final Stages of the Automotive X Prize

A smattering of the world’s most fuel efficient cars lined up this week at Michigan International Speedway as the final stages of the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE got under way. A group of inventors, small companies and universities from around the world converged on Detroit to see how their vehicles would perform on a dynamometer. The nine remaining entries must pass this validation stage to earn the prize money, which is scheduled to be awarded in September. Entries ran on a variety of fuels including electric, biodiesel and hydrogen.

Among the most promising competitors is a four-seat, gas-powered car built by Oliver Kuttner’s team at the University of Virginia. They are using a novel, lightweight design to create a vehicle that gets 100 miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent under normal driving conditions. They are a competitor in the Mainstream subcategory, which required vehicles to achieve twice the fuel efficiency of those entered in the Alternative category.

WASHINGTON — The X PRIZE Foundation, an educational nonprofit, and auto insurer Progressive announced Thursday the winners of the inaugural Automotive X Prize, a $10 million competition that challenged teams to push the fuel-efficiency boundaries with cars that reach 100 miles per gallon or its energy equivalent under normal driving conditions. The three winning teams — Edison2 of Lynchburg, Va.; X-Tracer of Winterthur, Switzerland; and Li-ion Motors Corp. of Mooresville, NC — emerged from an original field of 111 competing teams representing 136 vehicle entries from around the world.