The field of teams eligible for the Progressive Automotive X price was reduced from 97 to 43 on October 19, 2009 when the list of "Qualified Teams" was announced. Teams had to receive a passing grade based upon safety and emissions, manufacturability and cost, the features of the entrant's automobiles, and the business plan of the company behind each entry in order to become a "Qualified Team".
While Aptera, Tata Motors and Tesla are the most famous of the remaining teams, a number of the other contenders stand out.
Of interest to Texans is EVX Laboratories which is located in Dallas. Their all electric vehicles include a proprietary electric engine and battery design. They are currently offering conversions of Mercedes Benz models. They have posted a video of a Smart fortwo conversion that apparently is a work in progress.
The Spira features a gasoline motorcycle engine and six inches of soft foam covering for safety.
The Gomecsys entry comes from the Netherlands and features a 2 cylinder gasoline engine 720 degree engine cycle for increased efficiency.
The Persu Mobility, Inc. entry is a fully enclosed tilting three wheeler with a gasoline / electric hybrid engine.
Edison2 out of Virginia is committed to an engine that burns natural gas that will be able to travel 1000 miles between fill ups. I couldn't find a website, but here's a link to a quite cinematic video in which they explain their philosophy.
The West Philly Hybrid X (EVX) team is the only team from a public high school. Western Washington University and the Cornell 100+ MPG Team round out the academic competitors.
The TW4XP team from Germany is competing with a human/electric hybrid with a top speed of 80 mph.
Team HydroPhi concentrates not on the battery but on a device that continually produces energy that is then stored in a battery. The device called a hydropack has uses well beyond automobiles. Its inventor, Rudy Simon, has been developing the device since 2001.
Here are links to the remaining competitors except for X-Tracer Team of Uster Switzerland which I could not find: American HyPower, AMP, APET-X, BDCOTSRUS, BITW Technologies, Boulder Electric Vehicle ,Combined Technology Solutions (CTS) , Delta Motorsport, Eltra , EnerMotion , Enginer , Envera , FVT Racing , Global-E , Illuminati Motor Works , OptaMotive , RaceAbout Association , SABA Motors , SSI Racing , Tango (Commuter Cars) , Team EVI , Team FourSight , Team ULV-3 , TTW Italia, Urbee , VePerformance , , Wikispeed , ZAP
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