Automotive X Prize News: July 6th, 2008

Press release from the Automotive X Prize people this week: U.S. City Interest High in the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE for Super Fuel Efficient Vehicles. The say that "Albuquerque, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Denver, Indianapolis, New York, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Pasadena, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and St. Louis have all expressed interest in the competition", and maybe more (they don't claim to list them all). Also, there are now 94 teams who have submitted a Letter of Intent to compete. The ranks grow faster than I can make pages!

This week one man got enormous amount of coverage for his black 1987 Ford Mustang, which he claims to have converted into an 80 MPG, 400 HP, E85 burning wonder. You can check out his Automotive X Prize website: HP2g, as well as any number of articles on his vehicle: Toledo Blade (local), Mustang Revolution, The Pittsburgh Channel (TV), Autoblog Green, FQuick, etc. The Automotive X Prize is exactly the right kind of place for this type of claim - the race will show us all the truth, and if he really does have something, it'll be great press for his technology.

Corvette owner orders Electric Yaris from Hybrid Technologies, a product they call the LiV™ WISE. He wants to step up and do something, but his HP loving buddies think he is crazy. I think we need more of that kind of crazy. Think of it this way: instead of giving his money to known-to-be-evil-oil-companies, he's going to give it a start-up trying their best to make a transport revolution. More power to you, MRSTEAM!

Ford Fiesta Econetic gets 62 MPG, and those are apparently US Gallons, even though the car was revealed in Europe. Now bring the car here, Ford!

Honda Insight Hybrid Wins Hypermiling Competition with 124 Miles per Gallon, including lots of info on how you can do it too. The most important tip? Keep speeds down.

Next Generation Prius to Have Solar Panel Roof Option, to help power the Air Conditioner (AC). Hopefully they are thinking similar to the Aptera - use it to power a fan while the car is parked in the sun, ensuring that the car doesn't become an oven on sunny days.

Back on Week of May 12th, VW announced that the concept 1L car would become a reality in 2010, and now there is some progress on that. According to Car Magazine (UK), the production version will feature a two-cylinder engine (up from 1 cylinder on the concept car), super low 300kg (661 lbs), and anything from €20,000 (£16,000) to €30,000 (£24,000) price wise. It may also be a "mild hybrid". No word on mileage, but the concept got 235 MPG, so they have a lot of extra they can "spend" on safety, comfort, etc. The car is "likely to be assembled in VW´s own prototype shop, which has a maximum capacity of no more than 1000 units per year", so that's hardly a real production vehicle. But I bet if response is good they will be able to transition quickly to a larger factory. Green Car Congress, Wired, Slashdot,