It says on the Tata Motors website that "Tata Motors is committed in letter and spirit to Corporate Social Responsibility." Today, the Progressive Automotive X Prize announced that Tata Motors Limited (NYSE: TTM) has signed a letter of intent to compete for the $10,000,000 prize. Tata intends to enter a vehicle in both the mainstream class and the alternative class, giving them a shot at all of the money. All we know about the vehicles so far is this sentence from the press release: "the team intends to enter a pure e-drive micro car into the Alternative Class and Dominant Electric Hybrid vehicle into the Mainstream Class." The image is the Tata Nano, which (once it enters production) will be the cheapest car in the world, at about $2500 new.

By any measure, you could call Tata a major car manufacturer: revenue in 2007 was US$7.4 billion. I wrote a widely read article about major car makers and the Automotive X Prize back in February. Tata has a lot to gain from the Automotive X Prize. If you read their company profile, you learn that most of the companies 4 million vehicles on the road are large commercial vehicles (for instance, they own Daewoo, the Korean company whose trucks many Americans are familiar with, they also make buses). Their passenger vehicles division is fairly new - the 1998 Tata Indica became India's first "fully indigenous" passenger car.

So my calculus is that Tata is joining the Automotive X Prize in order to build their name recognition as a passenger car company. And, of course, they have a great home market for any resulting 100 MPGe vehicle. I look forward to learning more about their team and vehicles - it will be interesting to see how many resources they assign to this effort - and I look forward to seeing a page on their website which links their Corporate Social Responsibility mandate to this prize. That should encourage other major car makers to join as well.

Read on for the complete press release from the Progressive Automotive X Prize.

Tons of news this week - it took me extra time just to prep this because there is so much. We've got articles on Phoenix Motorcars, Aptera, Poulsen Hybrid, Illuminati Motor Works, Tesla Roadster, and the MDI Compressed Air Vehicle, just for the official teams. Then there is a new video of the aerocivic, several interesting articles on the GM Volt, news that the X Prize Foundation is hiring for Automotive X Prize positions, new pics of the Fisker Karma, more info on the Triac, a couple things on the VW 1L (photo curtosy of Motor Authority), and progress on HCCI technology.

Miles Electric Vehicle currently sells a range of low-speed EVs to fleet customers.  With the XS500, they not only intend to sell a high speed (freeway capable) vehicle, but they intend to sell it to consumers.  It's a pretty ordinary looking vehicle, with only a slight premium in price - if they can pull it off as they hope to, it may be the first "regular car" EV on the market. Presumably they will compete in the Mainstream Class of the Automotive X Prize, mostly for the media attention. Check out the new Miles EV XS500 page, or read on for the same information presented via HTML.

Episode 13 of the X Prize Cars Podcast is live! (8 minutes; download MP3) It contains an interview with Terence Davidovits of Cornell AXP, conducted on March 21st 2008 at the New York Auto Show. Cornell AXP is the student team from Cornell University.

Notes:

- 70 students on the team, ~half are getting class credit!
- 2 faculty advisers manage the "lab class"
- mostly mechanical engineering and electrical engineering student, some architects, design students, business students, economics majors
- team was started by a student
- targeting a mainstream PHEV
- mule car is a 1991 Geo Metro
- media sponsor is Popular Mechanics
- they have financial/equipment sponsors already, including GE, Tektronic, Toyota, NI
- plan to make public the design of the car, although honestly it doesn't look like they have given the end state much thought yet

The Avion Car Company made waves in the late 80's with their super efficient automobile - they even broke a Guiness Book of World Records record for fuel efficiency. But they don't seem to have done much since - I guess in the 80s and 90s no one was interested in their technology, because gas was too cheap. But the Automotive X Prize has brought them back into action! Check out the new car page: Avion, or read on for the same info presented via HTML.

Only the regulars this week - we've got an exciting video tour of the Aptera Factory, a brand new Tesla Store, and a three minute TV piece on the Fuel Vapor Alé. Plus I found a couple of interesting articles on potential technology for the Automotive X Prize, an update on CAFE, and more praise for Project Better Place.

Episode 12 of the X Prize Cars Podcast is live! It contains an interview with Ingo Valentin of Valentin Technologies (13 minutes, download MP3), conducted on March 21st 2008 at the New York Auto Show. See also: Valentin Tech Ingo Car Page, AXP blurb, tagged posts from this site.

Notes:
- he is the only member of the team so far
- has patents on hydraulic drive train
- has done detailed simulations and models to prove the efficiency of his concept
- efficiency comes from: i) small, constant speed/power ICE, ii) very efficient hydrostatic drive train with 100% regenerative braking, iii) low weight, iv) improved aerodynamics due to less need for cooling
- mainstream class, 4 wheels 5 seats, totally new car (not retrofit), but he plans to outsource the coach part
- found some funding from Switzerland for simulation, but needs $5-6M more for the whole project. Want to find five $1M angel investors.

Popular Mechanics has a great story out today featuring ten Automotive X Prize Teams: Top Ten Early Contenders. The complete list:

10. West Philly EXV
9. Velozzi Supercar
8. Loremo
7. Motive BEHEV
6. VentureOne
5. Fuel Vapor Ale
4. Phoenix SUT
3. Hybrid Tech
2. Tesla Whitestar
1. Aptera Typ-1

As you can see, I have pages for only five of these ten vehicles (plus half for Tesla), but I don't disagree with their choices from the 64 teams which have officially sent in a letter of intent. The only obviously missing team is MDI/Zero Pollution Motors, who have gotten a lot of press for their Compressed Air Vehicle. Read on for some details which their reporters have dug up.

UPDATED: the article is from Popular Mechanics, not Wired. I'm obviously smoking crack or something ;-)

Motive Industries has created a very sporty design for their Automotive X Prize entry. With 2+2 seating, the vehicle should qualify for the mainstream class if the rules are modified as people expect. Motive Industries plans to use both battery exchange and a range-extending ICE generator, hence their designation BEHEV: Battery Exchange Hybrid Electric Vehicle. Check out the new page on Motive Industries BEHEV, or read on for the same information in HTML.

This weeks news includes a major new hire for Aptera, some details on the phase-in of CAFE standards, a non-popular mechanics story on the Cornell AXP Team, a couple of Earth day round-up posts from Autoblog Green, a story on designing electric cars, and some updates on other stories we have been following.