Automotive X Prize News: Jan 28th, 2008

By Eric Boyd on January 28, 2008 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tags:

Automotive X Prize,

Avion,

Chevy Volt,

Cornell University,

Dragonfly,

Fisker Karma,

Loremo,

PML Flightlink,

Poulsen Hybrid,

Project Better Place,

Tesla,

Tilting Vehicle Australia,

Trev,

Twike,

Visionary Vehicles,

ZAP X

Lots of press this week about the Automotive X Prize - apparently lots of media organizations finally got their stories from last weeks Detroit Auto Show out. Some fairly major updates from Tesla, ZAP, and a flurry of posts about the Fisker Karma (which is not an AXP competitor). Many of the lessor known teams also got brief mentions in the news, including Tilting Vehicle Australia, Avion, Twike, Poulsen Hybrid, Dragonfly, Loremo, and Cornell University. It's nice to see the little guys finally getting some press!

Local man pursues 100 MPG, millions, featuring Aaron Davenport of Tilting Vehicle Australia. More here. I interviewed him at the Detroit Auto Show as well and I hope to have something up about that in the coming days.

The X Prize has put up a nicely edited video from the Detroit Auto Show, featuring their booth as well as a tour of the other green vehicles at the show:

While I am talking about the X Prize Foundation, here is an interesting tidbit - apparently Ray Sidney donated "big money" to Automotive X Prize. Ray was an early employee at Google, so "big money" could be quite significant.

Tesla has a solution for transmission woes - get rid of it!, which they can accomplish by water cooling the motor and getting more power to it, so as to get back the performance they loose by sticking with the top gear only.

There were many stories about the Automotive X Prize in general (teams mentioned are in brackets, mostly such mentions are brief quotes from a team member or picture of the vehicle): The Independent (Aptera, Dragonfly, Velozzi, Fuel Vapor, MDI, Commuter Cars, ZAP), VoA News (Visionary Vehicles, Poulsen Hybrid), MSN Autos (Fuel Vapor, Visionary Vehicles, ZAP), Consumer Reports (Tesla, Loremo, Cornell University), Motoring.co.za (Avion, Twike, Dragonfly), NZ Herald (Avion, Twike, Aptera, MDI/ZPM, Dragonfly) Carformance (Aptera, Tesla, Fuel Vapor).

PML FlightLink working "exclusively" with Volvo - ZAP now working with Chinese company on in-wheel motors. Also, Zap just now looking for someone to engineer the Alias, hopes to start production in Q2 2009.

Trev from Australia, a fast, stylish, three-wheel, 2-seat EV built by staff and students of the University of South Australia. 0-60 MPH in 10 seconds, top speed 75 MPH, 100 miles range on 7kWh, 44 kg li-ion polymer batteries. No word on whether they will compete in the AXP, but this is totally the type of vehicle I expect to see in the alternative class! See also Autoblog Green

There were many many articles on the Fisker Karma this week. I was at the Detroit Auto Show and I asked the Fisker reps there about the AXP - one had never heard of it, and the other seemed fairly certain that there were NOT going to compete. But here are some news links about the vehicle anyway: New York Times, Carazed (skeptics), Carazed (manufacturing).

The GM Chevy Volt did not get as much press, but I asked at the auto show about that vehicle as well. The lady said that GM has not yet decided, but that the decision did not depend on the vehicle, but rather on GM itself, i.e. management. Which is interesting, because according to my calculations, the Volt does not currently achieve 100 MPGe.

Malcolm Bricklin explains Visionary Vehicles Vision

Project Better Place and Renault sign deal to bring EVs to Israel.