Jon Stewart suggested this on The Daily Show when he had Richard Branson on, and it’s been kind of nagging at me. The automakers are pushing hybrid cars, and saying that “someday” we’ll get fuel cell cars. Hybrids are a stop-gap solution, at best, and we don’t know when or if fuel cell cars will be out.
So, how about an automotive X-Prize where someone has to come up with a car engine that can be a “drop-in” for existing models, so one can’t simply build a car out of exotic materials or make it some strange design that’s impractical for the average person to use?
The winner would be someone who came up with a car engine that had the same (or better) level of performance (top speed, acceleration, etc.), mileage, lower emissions, and used a cheap fuel source readily available domestically.