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As RobertSmalls pointed out:
> Their MPGe method has basically handed the prize to battery-electric cars.
I'll have to agree with you there. A number of us internal combustion driven competitors have withdrawn, and the plug-in electric bias has certainly been a factor. Understand that the X Prize Foundation's MPGe assesment of plug-ins wasn't declaired at the outset of the competition, and while we were anticipating the electrics would have a bit of a bonus because large scale conversion of fuel to power has advantages over small scale conversion (under-the-hood powerplants aren't as efficient as large stationary powerplants, or even large mobile powerplants as found in large ocean going ships, for a variety of reasons), none of the early-entry IC guys I talked with even imagined they'd give the electrics a 100% efficiency factor at the wall plug. Oh well, it's the X Prize Foundation and Progressive Insurance's ten million dollars, and they can give it to whoever they want, but it would have been a more interesting competition if it had remained as technology neutral as it was originally presented.
I think this competition will exacerbate the problem of laymen confusing electricity with a power source. Electricity is a way of transmitting power, not of generating power. At present in America, plug-in electric cars are really coal burning cars with invisible extension cords.
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