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Posted August 1 2007 04:33 PM by Rory Jurnecka 

We told you about the creation of the Automotive X-Prize a while back, the competition in which the goal is to build a vehicle capable of being marketable and mass-produced while able to produce low emissions and exceed fuel mileage of 100 mpg. The winner of the Automotive X-Prize, be it a group, business, or individual, will receive $10 million.

Today, it was announced that the first 31 teams have been confirmed for the competition and some pretty well-known names are on the list. Tesla, Zap, and Cornell University have all signed on with 28 others to take part in the event, scheduled to begin in 2009. The Automotive X-Prize is open to anyone qualified to take on the challenge and is funded by the same group that awarded $10 million for the first private manned spaceflight.

There are two categories to enter: Mainstream, requiring four passengers and four wheels, and Alternative, requiring two passengers but no specific number of wheels. In the actual competition, entrants will have to submit a business proposal showing the market viability of their automobile in addition to the actual driving competition.

If you think you're up for the challenge, there's still plenty of time to enter. We'd love to see some full-scale automakers sign up, but so far there have been no takers on that level. More information on the Automotive X-Prize is available at auto.xprize.org

A full list of the 31 current entrants is listed below:

 Aptera Motors - California, USA
 Commuter Cars Corp. - Washington, USA
 Cornell University - New York, USA
 DEHyds - Washington, USA
 Delta Motorsport - Northants, U.K.
 Desert Fuel - Arizona, USA
 Disruptech - California, USA
 Dragonfly Technology LTD - Northhampton, U.K.
 Fuel Vapor Technologies - British Columbia, Canada
 GreenIt! - Oregon, USA
 Herf Duo - Berlin, Germany
 HyKinesys - California, USA
 Kinetic Vehicles - Oregon, USA
 Kuttner Doran Inventions - Virginia, USA
 Loremo AG - Munich, Germany
 Maine Automotive X - Maine, USA
 MDI, Inc. & Zero Pollution Motors LLC - New York, USA
 Michigan Vision - Michigan, USA
 MotoTron Corporation - Wisconsin, USA
 Phoenix Motorcars - California, USA
 Prometheus Systems, LLC - Arizona, USA
 Porteon Electric Vehicles, Inc. - Oregon, USA
 Psycho-Active - Georgia, USA
 Roane Inventions - Texas, USA
 Society for Sustainable Mobility - California, USA
 Spirit One - Alberta, Canada
 Tesla Motors - California, USA
 Valentin Technologies - Wisconsin, USA
 Velozzi - California, USA
 X Tracer - Winterthur, Switzerland
 ZAP Motors - California, USA