Automotive X Prize News: Feb 5th, 2008

By Eric Boyd on February 4, 2008 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tags:

Automotive X Prize,

Tesla,

Valentin Technologies,

Volt,

ZAP,

ZAP Alias

The big news this week was the major automakers lack of participation in the Automotive X Prize. Of course, that has been true for ages, but apparently this week it suddenly became newsworthy! There was also considerable news about the Tesla Roadster, the ZAP Alias, and even a piece on the Valentin Technologies.

The big story of the week started here: MLive: X Prize Program Seeks Automakers but doesn't get them. This turned into Major automakers were approached but won't enter, sponsor cars, and then into Carmakers chicken out of Automotive X Prize and then AXP challenge ignored by major carmakers. This story was picked up by hundreds of blogs and other news services - and my impression is that it is reflecting badly on the carmakers, not on the AXP itself, which is great. I hope the carmakers feel some pressure to join now!

130 MPG Ingo by Valentin Technologies. It uses hydraulic technology to drive the wheels - you can think of it has the hydraulic equivalent of a REEV, so maybe a range-extended hydraulic vehicle?

The X Prize Foundation released a new blog post Computing MPGe for Electric Hybrids, by which they mean plug-ins. There is a table showing a variety of plug-in Prius conversions and some other EVs. Interestingly the PHEV Prius ranges from 54.5 MGPe to 106 MPGe.

Wired Autopia: ZAP says it's $30k Electric Sports Car is Coming in 2009 but skeptics doubt it. AutoblogGreen: Zap just now looking for someone to engineer the Alias, hopes to start production Q2'09.

Lots of Tesla news this week: What's the downside to the Tesla Roadster? The Range!. Apparently, driven like a sports car, the range is only about 100 miles. Tesla holds another customer conference call, reaffirms WhiteStar, talks DriveTrain 2.0. Airbag Waiver Keeps Tesla Roadster Alive. Iron Man trailer shows Tesla Roadster. Autoweek reviews Tesla: fun!

FT: Battery Plant signals surge in electric cars. Johnson Controls and Saft are opening a factory in Nersac, France to produce large-format lithium-ion batteries for cars. Production will start at 5000 packs/year, but can scale up easily.

GM still plans ten of thousands of Volts in first year.