Contest for a 100 MPG Car: The Auto X Prize[/align]

Winner Could Get Up to $20 Million: Popular Mechanics reports in its blog that the X Prize Foundation is expected to announce the rules forits new Automotive X Prize contest today at the New York Auto Show. The New York Times also previewed the contest here.
The main framework of the contest will be to build a car that gets 100 mpg, can be mass produced and will appeal to consumers. "So this X Prize will only open to practicable cars capable of reaching the marketplaceā€”no concept cars or science projects," says Popular Mechanics.
The prize will be between $10 million and $20 million. Qualified entrants will be tested in two long road races in 2009.
The X Prize Foundation creates these contests in order to spur innovations in technology, in the same manner that a prize spurred Charles Lindbergh to make his 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The first X Prize was awarded in 2004for a rocket plane that could repeatedly fly to the edge of space and return and land safely.
Fuel economy for U.S. cars is now at 24.85 mpg and has not increased significantly since the 1980s.
What do you think of this contest? Will it produce viable, high-mileage cars -- and would you buy a 100 mpg car? I think the contest is a great idea and I'd jump at the chance to buy a 100 mpg car once my Prius wears out. With Toyota today reporting record monthly hybrid sales and a big jump in overall sales -- while U.S. automakers' sales dipped -- it seems high-mileage cars make good business sense.

 

Maybe Fred Flinstone's car could win it, uses no gasoline at all.