At least 14 cities vying for an Auto X Prize stage race in 2009-2010

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg at the official start of the Auto X Prize.

Once all of the designers and teams get their ducks in a row and prep their vehicles for the cross-country portion of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize in 2009 and 2010, they're going to need places to go. For now, all we know is that the route will start in New York City in September 2009 and end in, well, somewhere in California I'm guessing. The X Prize organizers announced yesterday that "interest is high" in hosting some of the events in between the coasts, and listed 14 cities that have said they'd like to host a stage race: Albuquerque, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Denver, Indianapolis, New York, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis.

The stage races will take place over (likely) ten stops and each "will feature a driving competition over city, suburban and rural roads between 30 and 200 miles in length." The races will show that the 100 mpge cars can achieve their numbers under real-world conditions.

Another new tidbit: there are now 94 teams that want to participate in the competition. Seems likely that we'll have over 100 by the time the application deadline hits at the end of the summer.

[Source: X PRIZE Foundation]

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