As promised, the X Prize Foundation will be releasing the preliminary guidelines on Wednesday at the New York auto show for the Automotive X Prize, a competition challenging the world’s best and brightest minds to design, build and demonstrate vehicles that are super-efficient and production-capable.
"We are at a remarkable moment in time when promising new automotive technologies can meet growing consumer demand," says Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation. "The X Prize Foundation firmly believes we need practical, safe and fuel-efficient vehicles on the road."
Automotive X Prize members and world-class advisors came together to create the competition, and, after thousands of hours, they finally agreed upon specific details of what the competing teams must achieve when building their viable, fuel-efficient vehicles.
The competition requires significant energy and emissions goals (most importantly, fuel economy) with at least 100 mpg or its equivalent. The guidelines are replacing the outdated MPG with this new standard, MPGe, which takes into account energy equivalents, no matter what the energy source.
Production capability is another important requirement: Vehicles will be judged on specific market production criteria detailed in key areas such as safety, cost, features and business plan. So this X Prize will only open to practicable cars capable of reaching the marketplace—no concept cars or science projects.
Vehicles that meet the strict requirements will compete in two different categories: mainstream and alternative. The four-wheeled "mainstream" cars must carry four passengers; the "alternative" vehicles must carry two or more passengers with no minimum wheel requirements. While both categories will feature the same requirements for fuel economy and emissions, the vehicles will have different design constraints.
This challenging, multi-year competition will test the qualified vehicles in two rigorous, long-distance stage races in 2009. The two races—a qualifying round and the grand prize final—test the vehicle under real-world driving requirements and conditions. The courses will reflect typical consumer driving patterns during numerous stages, in varied terrain, communities and weather conditions.
In order to win, vehicles must complete both races with the lowest overall time averaged over all scoring stages while still meeting the Automotive X Prize requirements for fuel economy and emissions. While the competing teams might have their mind on how to win and their eyes on the money, the overall purpose of this competition is to capture the public's imagination to solve economic, international and environmental problems.
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