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X Prize Awards $10M In Progressive Automotive X Prize

The X Prize Foundation has awarded three teams a total of $10M, in its Progressive Automotive X Prize, the group announced today, including team Edison2 of Lynchburg, Virginia, X-Tracer of Winterthur, Switzerland, and Li-ion Motors Corp. of Mooresville, North Carolina. The three were selected from a field of 111 teams, representing 136 vehicles. Edison2 won the $5M mainstream class for the prize, the Li-ion entry received $2.5M for the alternative side-by-side class, and the X-Tracer Team won the $2.5M alternative tandem class.

Southern California's only finalist in the Automotive X Prize, Aptera, which is based in San Diego and backed by Idealab, did not win, but was being displayed at the announcement in Washington, D.C. The prize was aimed at spurring technology to create 100 miles per gallon or equivelent cars -- in hopes of helping to make vehicles more fuel efficient. The cars were judged not only on MPG, but also emissions and performance requirements. The X Prize had announced finalists in the prize in Michigan at the end of July, where it was running final trials at the Michigan International Speedway.

Peter Diamandis, the Chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, had told socalTECH in July that its efforts with the prize would result in mainstream car companies adopting or licensing technology developed through the competition, much as the technology from the group's first X Prize competition around space vehicles spurred investments in the competitors in that prize.