Contest aims to award $10-million prize to the best new automotive design, and gives a glimpse of what the energy-efficient car of the future may look like–and what will power it

NEW YORK—The Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches and other conventional sports cars were bumped from the showroom of the Manhattan Classic Car Club today in favor of a motley array of alternative vehicles—many of which could likely out-accelerate the world-renowned sports cars. From high-schoolers modifying a Ford Focus hybrid to run on biofuel to would-be manufacturers of three-wheeled electric vehicles, the X PRIZE’s seven automotive expert judges have winnowed a field of 135 vehicles down to 53, powered by six different fuel sources and coming from 18 states and 10 countries. And five of them were on display today in lower Manhattan.

“Forty-three teams have made this cut in the difficult design judging stage,” said Peter Diamandis, founder and chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, at today’s event announcing the “thoroughly vetted” winners. “The point is you don’t have to choose between beautiful, safe, affordable” or something that “oh by the way, gets 100 miles per gallon of fuel equivalent.”

The entrants—who ultimately must build a vehicle that gets the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon of gasoline and that could be mass-produced—were judged on both their technical specifications and their business plans, according to Eric Cahill, foundation senior director. “We’re revisiting a century ago, all over again,” he says, referring to the time before gasoline became the fuel of choice and alternative fuel vehicles—from electric to biofuel—abounded. “We’re in a competition globally, you could say, trying to keep these jobs in the U.S.”

The event featured five of the surviving designs, from both the “mainstream” and “alternative” tiers of the contest: a modified Ford Focus hybrid from the West Philly Hybrid EVX high school team; the OptaMotive Surge three-wheeled electric car with a motorcycle engine; ZAP!’s three-wheeled electric Alias; the two-seater Tango electric car, intended for commuters; and AMP’s (Advanced Mechanical Products) retrofitted Saturn Sky electric sports car. “We cheated,” says AMP co-founder and software chief Mick Kowitz. “We have a road-ready vehicle out of the box.”

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Tags: alternative fuel vehicles, automotive design, biofuel, car of the future, electric vehicles, ferraris, fuel sources, miles per gallon, peter diamandis, porsches, sports cars, x prize foundation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Automotive, Cutting-edge Research, Innovation, Project Energy, Scientific American, environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.