Automotive X Prize News: April 13th, 2008

By Eric Boyd on April 13, 2008 7:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tags:

Aptera,

Automotive X Prize,

Cornell University,

Ecomarathon,

Loremo,

OSGV,

PHEV,

PNGV,

SSM,

Tesla

Lots of news this week, including a couple of articles about the Automotive X Prize, an update from the Cornell Auto X Prize Squad, a car-sales "idea futures" stock market, Tesla launching European sales, Loremo to be showcased at a Museum, and a great interview with Daryl Siry of Tesla. The image is from the Shell Ecomarathon, which was recently won with a 2,843 MPG vehicle. Not a practical vehicle of course. The X Prize is better (not just different) because it requires practical vehicle. Also, a pointer to the Plug-in 2008 conference and expo.

PM-Sponsored Cornell Auto X Prize Squad Builds Mega-Efficient Drivetrain, starting with 1991 Metro. They are actually keeping the existing drive train and simply adding PHEV equipment: 3-4 kWh of battery and a 40 kW AC motor.

$10M X Prize for the best, fuel efficient car on the planet, with a good history lesson and featuring Tesla, Aptera and Loremo at the end.

Clean-vehicle contest may prove a nonstarter, which compares the AXP to Clinton's "Partnership for a New Generation Vehicle (PNGV). Despite the title, the article is actually rather up-beat at the end, saying "it does have the same feeling as Detroit did more than 100 years ago, when pioneers like Olds, Buick, Leland, Durant, Ford, Chrysler and Kettering tinkered, borrowed and risked millions of dollars in capital to perfect the first generation of the horseless carriage."

EV World: Kernel Crossover, an article on the Society for Sustainable Mobility / Open Source Green Vehicle AXP team and their vehicle.

Tesla Launches European Sales, (autobloggreen) for 2009 year at €99,000 (or about $155,000, plus VAT).

Loremo at the Technische Museum Wien, 4th of June to 19th of October 2008. Technisches Museum Wien will also feature an electric scooter and some PowerRisers.

Autoblog Green Podcast. Usually I find these are rather boring, but this time they talk about their visit to the Chevy Volt research center, and they also interview Daryl Siry of Tesla Motors. Daryl talks about the White Star (their forth coming sedan) in a fair amount of detail. They will release the EV version first, with an E-REV version to follow later. They are lining up $250M funding (hoping for some debt rather than all equity) for the production of the White Star. Design is mostly done already - they plan to show the car off soon (maybe Q3).

Edmunds Car Stock Exchange, where you can bet fake money on the number of vehicles sold in the first six months after a new car launch. Looks to me like the market has a serious mechanics problem - people do not like to short sell, and this means that the prices just go up, not down. Everything is massively over-valued. I would like to have an idea-futures market for the X Prize Cars, but I haven't been able to figure out what the mechanics should be.

Half Bakery: Automotive Y Prize, for decentralized design and production of an automobile. Clearly some very different goals than the AXP. And speaking of different goals, the Shell Eco-marathon winner achieved 2,843 MPG. But you wouldn't want to own it, let alone drive it.

Plug-in 2008 Conference, to be held July 22-24, 2008 in San Jose, CA. Teams might be interested in attending the Expo to see what's up in the industry. In related news, meaningful GHG benefit from PHEVs requires low-carbon electricity.