I e-mailed Bill Gross shortly after the Automotive X-Prize was announced. Earlier this year I visited Gross at his idealab headquarters in Pasadena, Calif., and we talked extensively about idealab's Aptera car project. Aptera is supposed to get 300 miles per gallon, which far exceeds the X-Prize goal of 100 miles per gallon. The one possible hitch for Gross: One stipulation of the X-Prize is that it has to be a car consumers want to buy -- and the Aptera is, well, not exactly mainstream.

But, Gross replied, Aptera will be in the contest. "We are competing, and I hope we can win that prize!" Gross writes. "We already have 1067 backorders - JUST in California -- so I think we have lots of demand." An Aptera car costs less than $30,000.

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