As our teams going through the process know quite well, the guidelines in this first phase have been very strict. We've asked teams to probe their viability before on-road testing begins in the Spring. The priority during this phase is to ensure that all teams understand the criteria, that entered vehicles meet or exceed the criteria, and that teams appear capable of building a production intent vehicle to these standards in time for formal vehicle challenges. No small feat for any company.

Thomas pointed out in a comment to my last post that team numbers continue to fall: I confirm his count, there are only 73 listed now. So clearly the rigorous requirements are having their effect. At one time I considered starting my own AXP team, but it only took me a couple of months of doing some analysis to determine that I didn't have anywhere near enough time, energy or money to properly compete - building a car is expensive hard work, let alone building one which is capable of 100 MPGe and is designed for production... Kudos to those teams who are still hanging in there, making it work. If even half of the remaining teams actually race it will still be a huge number of teams at the starting block!

Among the 17 teams we've lost this time: Avion, Lightning Hybrids, Motive Industries, Red Light Racing. The complete list of teams in table format follows after the break.]]> http://xprizecars.com/2009/09/an-update-on-design-judging.php http://xprizecars.com/2009/09/an-update-on-design-judging.php Avion Lightning Hybrid Motive Industries Red Light Racing Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:10:08 -0800 When they originally revealed the official teams, on April 7th, 2009: 111 total, 106 listed and 6 more remain confidential (don't ask me why that totals 112, I just report 'em as I sees em)

Now, August 20th, 2009: 90 listed, meaning a change of 16 from the prior list. Actually 19 teams have vanished, and 3 have suddenly appeared. These three could be name changes (although not simple ones - I already sorted away 4 of those), or it could also be some of the 6 teams revealing themselves.

Among the list of vanished teams: Linc-Volt, Kinetic Vehicles, MDI-ZPM, Physics Lab of Lake Havasu, Myers Motors. In my opinion some of these teams represent real losses - no doubt there are some people who have quite the story to tell about why they dropped out. Others probably realized that their chosen vehicle would never achieve 100 MPGe. Several of the vanished teams are actively continuing their efforts, they just are not focusing on the AXP anymore.

Teams that have appeared: All Power Labs, Apet-X, Porteon. I actually remember Porteon from before, so it's kind of strange that they were not in the original 106 listed teams.

Read on for the complete table of teams and some brief commentary.]]> http://xprizecars.com/2009/08/now-only-90-official-teams-lis.php http://xprizecars.com/2009/08/now-only-90-official-teams-lis.php Kinetic Vehicles Linc Volt MDI Myers Motors Physics Lab Lake Havasu ZPM Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:12:30 -0800 MAX Update No. 32: Why We Resigned from the Auto X Prize. I'm sorry to see Kinetic Vehicles leave - they were a great team with a great vehicle. Their reason for leaving?

But lately, this competition has been interfering with our goal for MAX: a high-mileage car you can build on a budget. The final rules have no place for a DIY car, and preparing MAX (even on paper) for factory production -- as in 10,000 cars a year -- has been sucking up our resources like you wouldn't believe. In the last year I have literally spent more hours filling out X Prize Foundation paperwork than I've spent developing MAX, and MAX has suffered for it. Instead of working on streamlining to improve the car's gas mileage, I've been writing business plans and tech documents and getting price quotes, for every single part in the car. Imagine trying to figure out the cost of 20,000 windshield wiper blades to be delivered in five years, etc., etc., etc.

This is evidence that the balance between business plan requirements and automotive engineering is currently on the business plan requirements, and this is having the predicted effect of pushing out teams that just want to build cars. Will this be good for the AXP? We won't know that until we know how many teams actually make it through this gauntlet. Kinetic Vehicles isn't the first team to drop out - in fact, it's just the most high profile of a whole string of recent drop outs.

How much work is it reasonable to ask teams to perform to ensure that the vehicles are "production capable"?

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.