The Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize is an idea whose time has come.
Looking around the web we see a growing interest in green cars. Gas 2.0, Green Car Congress, Green Transportation and Earth2Tech are just a few of the blogs following and promoting innovation in car technology. Our favorite may be Autoblog Green, which gave us our first hit of publicity with Detroit 2010: Edison2's Very Light Car scoffs at Electric Avenue.
Considering that in the US 2/3 of the energy used to move people and things around comes from passenger cars, we desperately need to change, in a big way, the efficiency of the automobile. 100 mpg is a big change. It is the kind of change envisioned by the X Prize Foundation’s mission: “to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity, thereby inspiring the formation of new industries, jobs and the revitalization of markets that are currently stuck”.
The Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize is intended “to inspire a new generation of viable, safe, affordable and super fuel efficient vehicles that people want to buy”. The competition begins in earnest with the shakedown phase later this month, followed by June’s knockout stage and the finals in July. The X Prize teams come from around the world, with wide-ranging ideas on how build a car capable of getting over 100 mpg.
We like to think that our approach – extremely low weight, extremely low aerodynamic drag – will emerge as the best idea. We’ll find out soon.