Tesla issued a recall this week! Also, they delivered their 500th roadster, and Bill Arnett (pictured) drove his Tesla to Yosemite. The news also includes Tata, HP2g (no longer an AXP team), Neil Young, a new Senior Director for the AXP (Eric Cahill), Tango, Loremo, and a ZAP! recall as well. Plus more.

Sorry for the long delay in updates. I've taken on a new project recently and it's been eating all of my time. But I intend to make some time over the coming weeks to revamp this website - the old "Compare the X Prize Cars" page is sadly misleading now that many LOI teams have dropped out, and many new teams have joined. I'm planning to make a form page where teams can submit to me info on their vehicles - otherwise I can't see how I will be able to document all 136 vehicles!

Anyway, for today I've got a collection of news that has been sitting around for up to 6 weeks. There are many great stories (featuring Phily Hybrid X, Velozzi, FuelVapor Technologies, EV Innovations, Motive Industries, Tesla, Aptera, Persu Hybrid, Cornell University, Linc Volt, EnerMotion, HP2g, Spira (pictured), XLR8SUN, Enertia Motors, Tri-Hybrid Stealth, Falcon Future, Gaia Transport, Kinetic Vehicles, Global-E), plus even a video of yours truly talking about the Automotive X Prize at BIL.

The full list of Automotive X Prize Teams has been released by the organizers. Hat tip to autoblog green. Quick numbers:

• 111 teams
• 136 vehicles
• 80 mainstream class
• 56 alternative class
• 32 full electric / battery
• 59 hybrid / electric
• 23 gasoline, 13 diesel
• 9 other, including urea, CNG, vegetable oil, etc.
• 25 US states represented
• 11 countries represented

Most of the big name teams still seem to be present - including Aptera, Tesla, Zap, Velozzi, Kinetic Vehicles, Loremo, MDI-ZPM, LincVolt, etc. In what I suspect has to be a mistake, Tesla is listed in the Mainstream category. Are they planning to race the new Tesla S instead of the Roadster?

I have to say, when I started X Prize Cars, I never expected such a huge list of teams - and I don't think the organizers of the prize did either. It's great to have such an enormous amount of energy being dedicated to this event, especially at the same time that the automotive industry is imploding upon itself. Opportunity is knocking, so let's see some of these teams succeed!

Of my 29 car pages, only 18 are still in the race (that I could determine). The exceptions are: Miastrada, Valentin Tech, SSM/OSGV, Visionary Vehicles (!), Hybrid Technologies, Commuter Cars (!), HEVT (!), Roane Inventions, Tilting Vehicle Australia, Phoenix (!), Miles Motors (!). Venture Vehicles is now known as Persu Mobility. Fuel Vapor Technologies is now known as FVT Racing, which actually expands out as Future Vehicle Technologies - I suspect that their Fuel Vapor tech has not panned out... Several of these teams likely just have different names and I have not discovered this, but the absence of others is likely due to actually dropping out. If anyone has any knowledge of these teams please feel free to leave a comment.

An interview with Peter Diamandis, a slide show, updates from the PIAXP team itself, and news on Aptera, Avion, Global-E, Lightning Hybrids (pictured), Linc-Volt and Myers Motors. Plus more.

Nerd About: X Prize Cars Change Our Perception of Automobiles, a brief interview with me, Eric Boyd. I answered a few questions over email after meeting Michelle Greer at BIL. Sadly, I forgot to turn on my audio recorder for my talk at BIL, so the podcast that I promised of my talk is now impossible. Hopefully I'll be giving that talk again soon so you will yet get a chance to hear it :-)

Wired has written an awesome review of 20 of the AXP teams, including Kinetix Motors (pictured)! AutoblogGreen asks why so many green cars have only three wheels, ZAP & Aptera make news, and the LATimes writes a story on the AXP.

Consumer Reports Blog, Automotive X Prize Press Release. Consumer Reports will be the "Official Active Safety Testing Partner" for the competition. They will not be conducting the testing themselves, but will be on hand to advise, and some of the procedures to be followed have been developed by Consumer Reports. It's great to have such a trusted brand helping with such an important aspect of the race!

In addition, "Consumer Reports is planning to report MPGe (miles per gallon energy equivalent) as one of several measures that will help consumers understand and compare vehicle efficiency", which means that MPGe might have a useful life beyond the Automotive X Prize!

Yours truly sits in an Aptera outside TED. Also, news from Axon, Western Washington University (pictured), Tesla, Electric RaceAbout, and a couple of messages from the PIAXP blog.

I've been collecting some good news for a bit - I was hoping to write about most of these individually, but given my extreme busyness lately I think it's better just to post them. Learn about Bright Automotive, a challenge from Avion, troubles at Tesla, see a video of Kinetic Vehicles (pictured), and more!

I'll be giving an X Prize Cars talk at BIL, in Long Beach, sometime on Saturday or Sunday (Feb 7th & 8th). BIL is the sister unconference to TED. It should be an excellent adventure!

My talk will be an expanded version of the talk that I gave at the Future Salon - although not too expanded, it's supposed to still fit inside a half hour. I've added more detail to the "rules" section at the beginning and an extra 4 vehicles to the middle section. I hope to record this talk, so I'll post the presentation and the recording (as a podcast) after it's all said and done.