250 MPG Equals $25 Million

[TNT]

Auto Design Challenge: 250 MPG Equals $25 Million From the X Foundation

Date posted: 03-14-2006

LOS ANGELES — The foundation behind the first private manned space flight is turning its attention to the car industry's final frontier: fuel economy.

The California-based X Prize Foundation is offering a $25-million award for the first mass-produced vehicle that offers a quantum jump in fuel-efficiency. It's still working out the final rules, but the foundation plans to offer a prize to any group that sells 10,000 vehicles capable of 250 mpg.

Mark Goodstein, executive director of the foundation's automobile prize, said the rules were still being worked out, especially those about how to measure consumption. He said two assumptions were being made: "One is that the technology exists today to give us an order of magnitude improvement in efficiency, however you measure it. The second is that the prize ought to be defined by the market."

Among previous vehicles that hit the fuel-efficiency target was a 2002 Volkswagen experimental vehicle that reached 264 mpg, thanks to a one-cylinder diesel engine. Goodstein, an Internet entrepreneur, said the foundation was close to signing a sponsor that would provide the prize money. Goodstein said there could be other rewards for the winning team, such as investment from venture capital firms or manufacturing contracts.

What this means to you: Encouraging massively fuel-efficient cars is a better way to spend $25 million than providing "space tourism" for a handful of super-rich space cadets.