by Eric Richard

In early April, the Automotive X Prize was announced with the goal of showing the feasibility of a production quality, affordable car that can get 100 mpg. This was covered in a previous blog article.

Last week, the first 30 teams applying for the prize were announced. There were a few familiar names including the folks at Tesla Motors.

According to this article, the organizers of the competition are hoping to get some of the larger auto manufacturers involved and announcement was intended to help create more excitement and publicity around the program.

As of now, the actual prize has not been announced and the actual rules for the competition are still in draft form. Hopefully by the end of the year, they will finalize the rules and announce the actual prize and get things rolling.

The ultimate goal would be to have the actual competition with real cars in 2009.