There are no small number of technical speed bumps between the New York International Auto Show, which concluded last week, and the inaugural Automotive X Prize race 18 months from now.
The team that can hit 100 miles per gallon on its journey to the starting line will determine whether it has a shot at winning $2.5 million.
In New Paltz, Kevin Haydon is leading U.S. marketing efforts for Zero Pollution Motors, and entrant in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize which will award $10 million to four design teams that can build ”“ and prove they can achieve affordable mass production ”“ of passenger vehicles that can achieve such energy efficiency.
Zero Pollution Motors is marketing the concept of France-based MD Enterprises S.A., which uses compressed air to power its stubby cars. NBC”™s Today Show featured the vehicle in a March 20 segment, along with three other X Prize entrants on display at the New York International Auto Show.
Zero Pollution Motors is not the only company in the region to enter the contest: Greenwich, Conn., startup Electric Truck Inc. and Shelton, Conn.-based Poulsen Hybrid are revving up their own efforts as well.
Not an easy assignment ”“ the Toyota Prius is the most efficient vehicle in mass production today, achieving 46 miles per gallon according to the latest figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Just two years ago, Danbury, Conn.-based Electro Energy Inc. showcased two vehicles to lawmakers in Washington, D.C., which it said could achieve 100 miles per gallon using its batteries.
The company elected not to enter the Automotive X Prize, however, deeming sales too far in the future. The company instead is focusing on a partnership to apply its battery technology to auxiliary-power units truckers use to run appliances on layovers, rather than idling their engines. Electro Energy and its Oregon partner Enertek Corp. displayed their efforts in Danbury last week, part of a national tour promoting the technology.
“We looked at (the Automotive X Prize) and it is very interesting, but we decided we really didn”™t have the resources to chase that,” said Michael Reed, chief executive officer of Electro Energy. “I think there will be vehicles ready to run [in September 2009] ”“ whether or not they are really commercially viable remains to be seen.”
Do not underestimate dollar signs dancing in the eyes of hobbyists, engineers and entrepreneurs. After the X-Prize Foundation offered $10 million to the first team that could launch and return a privately financed spacecraft twice in two weeks, Burt Rutan and Paul Allen collected with Rutan”™s design that uses principles similar to a shuttlecock to slow the vehicle for reentry into the atmosphere.
More than 60 teams have entered to date, and the Santa Monica, Calif.-based foundation has set a summer deadline on applications.
With new backing from Progressive Insurance, the X Prize Foundation will split the $10 million, automotive bounty into four awards. Three teams creating “mainstream” vehicles will divvy up $7.5 million, while $2.5 million will go to an “alternative” design introducing a radical new approach.
That might fit the bill for Paulsen Hybrid, a Shelton, Conn.-based company that is already marketing an external cap that attaches to wheels, using minimal power to charge powerful magnets that rotate wheels.
William Neely, a longtime electrical engineer with Fairfield-based General Electric Co., has yet to disclose his plans for Electric Truck Inc., which lists a Greenwich, Conn. headquarters.
New York City will be the starting line for the contest”™s first race scheduled for September 2009.