The Progressive Automotive X-Prize, closing in on its May 2010 competition start date, held a technical summit of the participating 43 teams at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas. Twelve of those teams brought along vehicles to display at the show, each one in varying degrees of completeness. This technical summit comes on the eve of the announcement that it will receive up to $5.5 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy. The award outlines specific tasks for the Auto X Prize to follow including vehicle telemetry integration, technical assistance to qualifying teams and the addition of technical staffing. The locations for the acceleration, hill climbing, slalom and fuel economy competitions haven’t been announced yet, but we’ve heard that Indianapolis and Washington, D.C., will be two of them. We also hear Auto X Prize fans will be able to watch real-time videos of the $10-million prize competition online and even see instantaneous fuel economy and performance of the entries.
Of the cars on display, the Zap Alias received most of the attention. Zap is said to begin building the Alias soon, and they even came prepared with handout questionnaires on the show floor asking consumers if they would prefer to own a $46,000 Alias that hits 80 mph and has a range of 100 miles or if they would be more likely to buy a $36,000 Alias with the same range and a top speed of 70 mph. Either way, the three-wheeler is said to hit 60 mph in 7.8 seconds. The car on display looked well-finished with a complete interior
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