Feds Contributing Up to $5.5 Million To Aid Auto X-Prize Final Evaluation Effort

The federal Energy Department said it will give up to $5.5 million to the X-Prize Foundation to support the non-profit organization's ongoing $10-million Progressive Automotive X-Prize contest.

Think of it as a sort of government insurance to guarantee smooth operation of a fuel-efficiency contest that's funded by a private insurance company.  At least there's no public health care program involved.

The grant to the X Prize Foundation, which describes itself as an educational nonprofit prize institute, will be used in part to provide funding for technical experts who can properly judge the contest to develop a marketable passenger vehicle that delivers fuel economy of at least 100 miles per gallon or the alternative-fuel equivalent.

Federal funding, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,  also will pay for on-board computer systems that will be able to accurately measure and display real-time fuel economy as the finalist vehicles go through their paces, and for consultants who can do safety and emissions testing on the entrants' vehicles.

It won't be used for prize money. That $10 million is being put up by the contest's sponsor, Progressive Casualty Insurance Co.

The contest began last year with more than 100 entrants and last month, after screening them for viability, a judging panel named 43 teams from 10 countries and 18 states to face off in the finals - a series of  track and lab tests - for the $10 million in prizes to be awarded in September.

The federal grant to the Automotive X-Prize is a worthwhile use of public funds, said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, because the contest,is all about "cutting-edge, American innovation that can help us fundamentally transform personal transportation and address the global climate crisis."

Progressive is one of a handful of companies that have sponsored various X Prize Foundation contests over the past few years.

The foundation's first $10 million award, the Ansari X Prize, was awarded in 2004 when aerospace engineer Burt Rutan, with funding from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world's first private vehicle into space.

Google is currently sponsoring the $30 million Lunar X-Prize competition in which contestants will try to safely land a robot on the moon, make it travel 500 meters - about a third of a mile - on the moon's surface and send images back to earth.

Danny King, Contributor

Posted by

John O'Dell November 4, 2009, 6:00 AM

Permalink

Categories:

Fuel Economy

Technorati Tags:

Progressive Automotive X Prize