In 2009 carmakers from around the world will go head-to-head in a race to prove they can deliver a 100-mpg car. Big names and hopeful hacks alike will have to show that their vehicles are not only economical and green, but economically realistic and practical.
"Our competition is not about concept vehicles. Our competition is not about science experiments," says Don Foley, the senior director of the Automotive X PRIZE (AXP for short). The race is about proving to the world that ultra-efficient cars are not only possible, but safe, affordable, and desirable for mainstream Americans.
The AXP, with its impressive X PRIZE $10 million cash purse, is being put on by the X PRIZE Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that raises multimillion-dollar prizes for scientific and technological challenges. The creator of the foundation, Peter Diamandis, drew his inspiration from the $25,000 reward that lured the young Charles Lindbergh to risk his life flying from New York to Paris in 1927.
The first $10 million X PRIZE went to Mojave Aerospace Ventures in 2004 (an outfit led by legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen), for flying their SpaceShipOne into sub-orbital space and back. Rutan's ship now hangs in the Smithsonian next to the Spirit of St. Louis.
