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X Prize: 3 Teams Win Fuel-Efficient Car Prize - Ho-Hum


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And the ($5 Million) winner is....Edison2 Very Light Car - Big Whoopee Doo

SEE ALSO: Big Oil Benefits From Divide and Conquer
SEE ALSO Electric Vehicles-Solution or Diversion?

But First Snide's Remarks: If I was Progressive Insurance I would ask for my sponsorship money back, because the results of this xPrize competition which was promoted as being a catalyst (like the fly into outer-space x prize) to promote a real breakthrough to prod inventors to create vehicles to help get America and the world off of Oil Based Fuels, has not been the result.

It looks like the winners (and most of the entries) are the same old, same old science fair engineering models...too bad.

We and many others hoped that the competition for $10 million bucks would have resulted in a plethora of unique and far thinking ultra-efficient "real" sized cars that could actually benefit our country. Uber MPG vehicles that real world motorists would and could buy from real world auto manufacturers and local new car dealers.

The x Prize for 100 eMPG, big whoopee doo...when an off-the-lot Flex-fuel (E85, like the winner uses) 2011 Chevrolet Malibu that is rated by our EPA at 23 MPG Highway can be said to get the equivalent of 138 MPG of gasoline without a 5 million dollar prize, now that's a realistic way to get off Big Oil's poison today. (see Alcohol and Driving DO Mix!

Washington DC September 16, 2010; Teams from Virginia, North Carolina, and Winterthur, Switzerland, with roots in the world of auto racing have won the first Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, the $10 million competition aimed at advancing the technology for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

According to the New York Times, the competition, which began in 2007 with 136 vehicles from 111 teams, required that the vehicles achieve 100 miles per gallon or the energy equivalent.

While two of the winning vehicles reached that goal with electric power plants, the top winner did it with an internal combustion engine. Oliver Kuttner, the founder and chief executive of Edison2 of Lynchburg, Va said that "when you have a background in racing, you focus on what you’re trying to achieve, and you know that you have a given time period to do it" His Company's Edison2 Very Light Car won the $5 million top prize.


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The other winners of $2.5 million each were the Wave II,
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a battery-electric vehicle from Li-Ion Motors of Mooresville, N.C., in the heart of Nascar country, and the E-Tracer, a battery-electric, enclosed motorcyclelike vehicle from Peraves of Winterthur, which is near Zurich.

Complete NYT Article: HERE