Auto X-Prize

  • Electric RaceAbout EV

    Unless you live in one of the more northern states -- or spend a lot of time in snow-covered mountains -- the idea of driving on ice might fill you with a sense of foreboding doom. Especially if that ice happens to be covering a very large expanse of water. Enter former Automotive X-Prize entrants Team Race-About, who have just set the first ever land-speed record for driving an electric car on ice, reaching an astonishing 161.59mph. Not content with setting a Nürburgring Electric Car Record of 8:43 in September last year, the Electric Race-About (E-RA) team from the Helsinki Metrololia...

  • Peraves E-Tracer, winner of Progressive Automotive X-Prize. Photo: Stefano Paris.
    All-Electric Monotracer, X-Prize Winner, Enters Production

    Remember the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize -- the $10 million prize to find the next big thing in green transportation? While the X-Prize -- not to mention many of the companies who took part -- have long been forgotten, one of the competition winners wants you to know its revolutionary...

  • Edison2 Very Light Car, Progressive Automotive X-Prize winner.
    Edison2 Electric Car Sets EPA Economy Record Of 350 MPGe

    The EPA's MPG equivalent (MPGe) ratings for electric cars aren't the simplest of things to understand, worked out through a series of different calculations. When an electric car gets 350 MPGe to the more well-known 2012 Nissan Leaf's 99 MPGe rating though, you know it must be something special...

  • Aptera 2e development prototype at company offices in Vista, California
    Futuristic Electric-Car Dream Dead? Aptera To Refund Deposits

    It was great while it lasted, but the dream of being able to buy a sleek, three-wheeled Aptera 2e electric car seems to be receding into the distance. A month ago, the company stopped taking deposits for new Apteras, blaming an issue with the escrow account in which they were held. Now, the company...

  • Aptera 2e development prototype at company offices in Vista, California
    Aptera Struggles Toward Production Of 3-Wheel Electric Car, Maybe

    One of the most remarkable--and most delayed--of the promised new generation of electric cars is the three-wheeled Aptera 2e. The unusual, highly aerodynamic vehicle was designed by a startup automaker in Southern California. The resin-bodied car was a finalist at last year’s Auto X-Prize...

  • Aptera 2e
    Aptera Ditches San Diego As Home of Electric Car Factory, Blames Economics

    Remember Aptera, the plucky San Diego firm responsible for the three wheeled Aptera 2e electric car which resembles an airplane but is technically a motorcycle? After the firm lost out in last year’s Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize it went mysteriously silent, save for the occasional...

  • Li-Ion Motors Wave II, Progressive Automotive X-Prize winner.

    What do you do when a major publication publishes an expose on the firm you’d crowned winners of a competition you’d been running, asking if the winner was even eligible to take part? That’s the problem facing the team behind the Progressive Automotive X-Prize after an article in The New York Times made serious allegations that Li-Ion Motors, the winners of the side-by-side category of the $10 million competition, had a less-than rosy past. The New York Times reports that just as representatives from Li-Ion Motors were receiving a comically over-sized cheque for the $2.5...

  • Aptera 2e during Automotive X-Prize handling tests, from Consumer Reports video on YouTube
    After The Auto X-Prize, What Next For Aptera's Electric Car?

     Will video and time kill the Aptera star? Will Detroit? Or will the Auto X-Prize pull the final punch? As the field has been whittled down from 136 to just 9 contenders for the chance to win part of the elusive $10 million prize fund, we've watched electric vehicles dominate the event. For one...

  • Aptera 2e, photo by Jason H. Harper
    Electric Vehicles Rule 100MPGe Auto X-Prize, Fighting For $10m Prize

     While Nissan and Chevrolet fight it out to become the number one consumer electric vehicle of 2010, six electric vehicle companies most consumers will have never heard of are battling it out to become $10 million richer. That's the prize fund the winner of the Auto X-Prize could take home in...

  • Aptera 2e during Automotive X-Prize handling tests, from Consumer Reports video on YouTube
    Aptera ‘Fixes’ Door-Opens-When-Cornering Issue, Puts 2e on Diet

    It's the start of the month, which means it's time for another newsletter from Aptera, the company struggling against the odds to launch its ultra-aerodynamic, ultra-futuristic three-wheeled electric vehicle by the end of 2011. According to Aptera the vehicle is going through some more redesigns...

  • Aptera 2e during Automotive X-Prize handling tests, from Consumer Reports video on YouTube
    Aptera Grits Its Teeth, Glosses Over Auto X-Prize 2e Handling Issue

    Optimism is a useful thing for a startup company, maybe even a requirement. But the April newsletter from Aptera Motors, which is struggling to launch its ultra-aerodynamic three-wheeled electric vehicle in the face of delays and funding constraints, smooths over some crucial handling issues with...

News First Drives Electric Cars Hybrids Guides Green Life