Anyway, for today I've got a collection of news that has been sitting around for up to 6 weeks. There are many great stories (featuring Phily Hybrid X, Velozzi, FuelVapor Technologies, EV Innovations, Motive Industries, Tesla, Aptera, Persu Hybrid, Cornell University, Linc Volt, EnerMotion, HP2g, Spira (pictured), XLR8SUN, Enertia Motors, Tri-Hybrid Stealth, Falcon Future, Gaia Transport, Kinetic Vehicles, Global-E), plus even a video of yours truly talking about the Automotive X Prize at BIL.

• 111 teams
• 136 vehicles
• 80 mainstream class
• 56 alternative class
• 32 full electric / battery
• 59 hybrid / electric
• 23 gasoline, 13 diesel
• 9 other, including urea, CNG, vegetable oil, etc.
• 25 US states represented
• 11 countries represented

Most of the big name teams still seem to be present - including Aptera, Tesla, Zap, Velozzi, Kinetic Vehicles, Loremo, MDI-ZPM, LincVolt, etc. In what I suspect has to be a mistake, Tesla is listed in the Mainstream category. Are they planning to race the new Tesla S instead of the Roadster?

I have to say, when I started X Prize Cars, I never expected such a huge list of teams - and I don't think the organizers of the prize did either. It's great to have such an enormous amount of energy being dedicated to this event, especially at the same time that the automotive industry is imploding upon itself. Opportunity is knocking, so let's see some of these teams succeed!

Of my 29 car pages, only 18 are still in the race (that I could determine). The exceptions are: Miastrada, Valentin Tech, SSM/OSGV, Visionary Vehicles (!), Hybrid Technologies, Commuter Cars (!), HEVT (!), Roane Inventions, Tilting Vehicle Australia, Phoenix (!), Miles Motors (!). Venture Vehicles is now known as Persu Mobility. Fuel Vapor Technologies is now known as FVT Racing, which actually expands out as Future Vehicle Technologies - I suspect that their Fuel Vapor tech has not panned out... Several of these teams likely just have different names and I have not discovered this, but the absence of others is likely due to actually dropping out. If anyone has any knowledge of these teams please feel free to leave a comment.

In addition, "Consumer Reports is planning to report MPGe (miles per gallon energy equivalent) as one of several measures that will help consumers understand and compare vehicle efficiency", which means that MPGe might have a useful life beyond the Automotive X Prize!

My talk will be an expanded version of the talk that I gave at the Future Salon - although not too expanded, it's supposed to still fit inside a half hour. I've added more detail to the "rules" section at the beginning and an extra 4 vehicles to the middle section. I hope to record this talk, so I'll post the presentation and the recording (as a podcast) after it's all said and done.

Loremo to be on the road in March, in three different versions: EV, low-power, mid-power. They may not use a diesel engine, as was their original design, because of emissions requirements.

Both Tesla and Loremo have signed letters of intent to join the Automotive X Prize, but were not mentioned as participating in the first round of official teams.

Videos and pics of ZAP Alias (pictured), the photos are good (just what I asked for on Wed!) but the video is a disappointing shot of it moving very slowly in a warehouse.

Henrik Fisker talks about the future of the Karma, and a low-cost model, with lots of juicy details. It still looks like the Karma will not be competing in the Automotive X Prize - such a shame.

I find it strange that they choose to include not a picture of this red Alias, but instead a computer rendering of it. Autoblog Green readers are tearing into them again. You can check out the new Alias Brochure II as well. I'm looking forward to seeing actual photos emerge from NADA next week.