Automotive X Prize News: July 21st, 2008
This is the 100th post on X Prize Cars! The site has come a long way since November, and so has the Automotive X Prize. There are now 90 teams who have signed a letter of intent! To date I've made 27 pages, covering 23 teams (two teams have two vehicles each, and two extra pages cover the Plug-in Prius, and the Chevy Volt.) I recently resurveyed all of the teams websites, and I think at least 13 more teams have made enough information publicly available for me to create a page for them - given how hard many teams are working, I can't make any headway on that backlog because new teams join the list faster than I make pages! I'm really looking forward to seeing all the vehicles race next year, and I hope that the Automotive X Prize will soon be able to celebrate having 100 teams going for 100 MPGe!
Anyway, on with the news. We've got another pile of news from Tesla this week, as well as articles on the MDI/ZPM compressed-air car, the Axon Hatchback, the Poulsen Hybrid, the Motive Industries Switch, the Phoenix Motorcars SUV, and the Kinetic Vehicles MAX. In addition, updates on the iMiEV, the Fisker Karma, and the Chevy Volt. Plus, links to the Solar Taxi (pictured on Lombard Street in San Francisco), the Escape From Berkeley non-petroleum race, an EESTOR blogger, and more.
Electric Cars Take Over: 17 Electric Cars You Must Know About, including the Tesla Roadster, Tesla Model S, Miles XS500, iMiEV, Hybrid Technologies Electric Supercar, the EV1, Commuter Corp. Tango, and many others.
Tesla Sued Again, this time by ex-employee, a class-action suit for their actions during what Martin Eberhard called the "stealth bloodbath". We might finally know the truth around that issue thanks to this lawsuit. Newsweek did a cool interview with Elon Musk. Check out this interesting interactive graphic of the Tesla Roadster, showing what made the car so expensive. The Tesla Blog put up another customer-written piece: Flying the Glider: Roadster Owner Ken Jacobs Tours Assembly Plant and Test Track. Founder Series Tesla delivered to founder, Martin Eberhard, read about Martin's First Drive. Tesla opens second store in Menlo Park, California.
An Air Car you Could See in 2009: ZPM's 106 MPG Compressed-Air Hybrid, pretty in depth article.
The affordable, 100 MPG, carbon-composite passenger car, featuring the Axon Hatchback, which is scheduled to be produced in 2010. They claim to be a competitor for the AXP, but actually I can't find them on the list of teams who have signed letters of intent.
Concept: Through-the-Road PHEV Conversion Kit, featuring the Poulsen Hybrid. Nice summary of all the details: it looks like they are still on track for sales this fall.
Motive Industries Turns Heads with The Motive 'Switch'.
Spy Shots: Phoenix Motorcars SUV, although you can't actually tell from the photos whether the vehicles have yet been converted to EVs.
Escape From Berkeley: by any non-petroleum means necessary. Interesting alternative-fuels race to be held October 10-13, 2008. I see that Kinetic Vehicles (an AXP team) plans to be a participant, using vegetable oil to power MAX. You can read more about MAX here: MAX Update: Half a Glass.
Valmet to assemble Fisker Karma in Finland, at the same factory where Porsche has cars made. See also Green Car Congress.
Does Car-Mounted Solar Make Sense, short answer no: it's far better to put them on your garage / house, even if you do intend to charge your car with them.
Lotus Goes Green with Eco Elise, further cementing their lead in environmental design for automobiles.
The Solar Taxi visited San Francisco, now they will be heading down to LA area. According to the draft rules, that vehicle gets practically infinite MPGe, and they are going around the entire planet, not just through a few cities! They visited the Tesla offices / labs on the way to Santa Cruz, so if you like Orange Tesla's you should check their photo gallery.
Shelby Supercars to create 100% green supercar, with at least one 500 HP electric motor, and "the possibility of several years between charging," which of course sounds completely crazy.
Al Gore's Repowering America Speech Video Clip, where he does briefly mention PHEVs and EVs, after calling for a 10 year transformation of the electric grid to renewable energy.
McCain Announced his Running Mate: The Chevy Volt. He's smitten, and plans to offer a $5000 tax credit. GM's Volt Becomes Centerpiece in Presidential Debate on Energy. Chevy Volt and the Cost of Bravery, apparently GM might have to increase the Volt price to $48,000 to avoid loosing too much money...
Interested in EESTOR, the potentially revolutionary supercap company? Check out the Barium Titanate Blog, where a wilily amateur out-investigates reporters to bring you the (possibly wrong) inside scoop.
Real-world Mitsubishi iMiEV stats, showing 85.65 kWh for 533.57 miles, which translates to 212 MPGe under the draft rules. They should race it!
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Congratulations Eric for your 100th post. I enjoy reading your blog. Keep up the good work!
Eric,
I get more information from this blog than any other around, you really do a great job. I can't imagine how much time you spend keeping up to date on all the current news.
Don't Stop,
Neil