I've decided to make these surveys a regular monthly feature. I'll tell you what's new, who's new, and what's worth checking out. But beware: since there are 100+ teams, this is going to be a lengthy post every month.

Additionally, you have to keep in mind that the status of the team/vehicle, and the status of their website, are two very different things. Many teams are focusing on building their vehicle rather than updating people via their website, and so lack of information on the website (or complete lack of a website!) in no way implies that the team and/or vehicle are not competitive.

With that disclaimer, please read on for the results of the X Prize Cars monthly team website roundup for September 2008.

On the X Prize Team front, Tesla has on San Jose for it's new factory, ZAP has broken ground on their factory in Kentucky, an excellent video of the Tango was posted, and a Montana resort has bought some Miles Electric Vehicles.

The Automotive X Prize issued a press release stating that there are now over 120 teams signed up in the letter of intent program. We've got updates/news on ZAP, West Philly Hybrid X, Miles Motors, Tesla, Fuel Vapor Tech, HEVT, Kinetic Vehicles, Loremo, Aptera, and Tata Motors. Also some info on the new Honda Insight (pictured), a Chrysler Plug-in Hybrid, Project Better Place, the Chevy Volt, the iMiEV, and some new technology Ford is developing.

Bo Bennett and Ryan Levesque started about 2 months ago, so there is already a huge volume of recorded audio to listen to. Fortunately, most of it seems to be the hosts simply reading the daily news about electric cars and making commentary - it is of little archival value (especially if you read that news anyway). However, I did find four episodes with interesting content relevant to the Automotive X Prize, and therefore to readers of X Prize Cars. Read on for links to these episodes and my notes from each.

- a pledge to put 1 million PHEVs on the road by 2015
- a 150 billion dollar investment fund which will go, in part, to funding R&D for said PHEVs, including a $7,000 rebate for consumers who buy them
- a multi-faceted plan to keep the building of these vehicles in America
- a pledge to convert the entire White House fleet to PHEVs within one year
- a further pledge to make 50% of new vehicles purchased for all government fleets PHEVs or EVs by 2012
- a reaffirmation of the new CAFE rules: mandatory 4% increases in average vehicle efficiency every year

If this came to pass (and that is a big if), you can bet that contestants for the Automotive X Prize would be in a great position to reap the rewards - not just the R&D money, but the instant market it will create for efficient vehicles. With McCain also proposing $5,000 rebates for PHEVs, a $300 million battery prize, and enforcement of the CAFE standards, it looks like we've finally got some politicians who might do something about the energy crisis. Not a moment too soon!

Although there was no press release about this, registration is officially open for the Progressive Automotive X Prize. So presumably some of the letter-of-intent teams will be making themselves official over the next few months - they have until January 1st.

Notes:

- team of half a dozen people
- thought AXP was a great match with their existing efforts
- tandem seat discussion
- 3-wheel discussion
- wants to be in the same class as "any car"
- idea for this car has been a long, rough road - since he was 17!
- he worked in the aircraft industry, knows aerodynamics
- market niche = high efficiency, fun commuter car
- being part of the Automotive X Prize has given them a lot of exposure
- friends and family provided initial investment
- they have 3 cars, shop, equipment, rent covered, all by a small group of investors
- looking for investor with deeper pockets, integrity, passion (they are picky)
- thousands of inquiries to buy their car
- plan to sell when they achieve 100 MPG
- working on a series hybrid version, as well as the fuel vapor technology
- praises organizers of the AXP for how well it's going

P.S. actually this podcast was live yesterday, but xprizecars.com had some technical trouble. I apologize for anybody who encountered a "500 Internal Server Error"; I am working with my webhost to make sure the problem does not reoccur.