Automotive X Prize

Governor Granholm and X-Prize CEO Peter Diamandis in the Amp'd Sky – Click above for high-res image gallery

The Progressive Automotive X-Prize has been underway for some time now but finally, the hyper-efficient rubber is meeting the race track. The twenty-eight remaining teams spent the weekend making their way to Michigan where they will begin the week-long "Shakedown Stage." There, the entrants will undergo a safety inspection and "on-track dynamic safety evaluations" that include, among other things, braking speed, lane changing

2010 Aptera 2e - Click above for high-res image gallery

One of the main reasons a small car company might want to participate in the Progressive Automotive X Prize (AXP) is for access to some high-tech testing tools (just ask Amp Electric Vehicles). The AXP doesn't just want to help the companies involved, though, and the public is supposed to learn something, too. A new partnership between the AXP and Morey Corporation will make it a bi

Amp Sky – Click above for high-res image gallery

Efficiency and speed will both be demanded of Progressive Automotive X-Prize entrants and the E-Tracer that Peraves has announced it will bring to the competition has both of those characteristics in spades. Serious spades. The only question unanswered is whether or not is has the lesser cards needed for a $10 million-winning royal flush. Putting that aside for now though, let's take a closer look at this electric cabin cycle and some of

One of the vehicles on display in the Progressive Automotive X Prize booth at the Detroit Auto Show is the Very Light Car, an entry we hadn't seen before. Taking a similar attitude as the Rocky Mountain Ins

The Progressive Automotive X-Prize has lost a lot of potential and participating teams over the course of the past few years, and today it lost a dozen cities. See, in early 2008, the AXP asked for bids to host trial events around the U.S. and at least 14 said they were int

All else being equal, Commuter Cars has about a 13 percent chance to win the $2.5 million tandem-seating Alternative Class portion of the Progressive Automotive X Prize with their Tango two-seat electric car. Why, because only seven vehicles are entered in that category and one of the winning considerations will be which vehicle is the fastest – and Sebastian Blanco

Tesla Model S – Click above for high-res image gallery

eVaro - Click above for high-res image gallery

EVI Wave2 Progressive Automotive X-Prize contender - Click above for high-res image gallery

While the Automotive X Prize's raison d'être is to give out money to the best high-mileage vehicles and business plans in the $10 million contest, as the saying goes, it takes money to give out money. To that end, the AXP announced today that it has received $5.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. The funding is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and is intended to "to support the X PRIZE Foundation's work to inspire a new generation of energy efficient vehicles" t

Got a favorite team in the Automotive X Prize? Once the road race portion of the AXP starts up (which is when, again?), we'll be able to follow the contest and specific vehicles online thanks to AXP's just-announced partnership with ThinkWrap. Vehicles will be monitored in "near-real time" thanks to a GPS-driven Google map "with interactive vehicle icons and virtual instrument displays," which we hope is more exciting than it sounds.

The Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize has has a number of teams drop out recently (e.g., the Avion and the LincVolt), but the competition is not slowing down. Next week, in New York City, the AXP will formally announce the names of the teams that are "moving ahead in t

Generally speaking, purchasing an eco-friendly automobile is an expensive proposition. One way to reduce that cost is by going homemade. Such is the case with Jack McCormack from Kinetic Vehicles, who decided that he would love to have fun, practical, affordable and high-mileage two seater under $10 grand.

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