All the way from Finland, the RaceAbout Association's Racebout coupe established itself as a major contender to win $2.5 million in the Progressive Automotive X Prize alternative class for side-by-side two-seaters.

Photos by Ronald Ahrens | For AnnArbor.com

With visions of any portion of the $10 million prize slipping away from all but a few, the Progressive Automotive X Prize competitors turned their attention to the commercial future of their cars during Tuesday’s leadership conference at Michigan International Speedway.

The on-track portion of the X Prize competition ended with only five teams in three categories having a realistic shot at the prize money in the quest for 100 miles per gallon (or the equivalent for electric vehicles).

The cars now move to Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. Dynamometer tests there will attempt to validate the performance figures posted at MIS.

Winners will be announced at a Sept. 16 ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, during the midafternoon gathering in MIS’ splendid new Michigan Room, several dozen inventors in the audience were told to guard their intellectual property rights, focus on capital resources and look for innovative means of product distribution.

“This is going to be an extraordinarily profitable industry,” said venture capitalist David Moll.

Conference moderator David Cole, chairman of Ann Arbor’s Center for Automotive Research, concurred with Moll.

“There really is some good news on the horizon,” Cole said. “When you think about what’s going on here, these are some exciting times.”

Cole said he was “really delighted that our Gov. (Jennifer) Granholm has been so aggressive” in pursuing funding for advanced battery manufacturing in Michigan.

David Cole addresses the X Prize leadership conference at MIS.

He said viable costs for batteries are “starting to look achievable.” While Asia has the monopoly on production of lithium-ion batteries for cell phones and other small consumer products, “the center of gravity” for heavy-duty car batteries is still to be determined.

The X Prize brought together battery-powered electric vehicles and different types of hybrids. Other cars were powered exclusively by internal combustion engines, either burning gasoline or an alcohol-gasoline blend.

In the mainstream class for four-seaters, the only entries to advance to validation testing at Argonne—and to have a chance at the category’s $5 million prize—are two examples of the Edison2 team’s Very Light Car, which has a turbocharged, 250-cubic-centimeter, single-cylinder engine.

In the alternative class for two-seaters, which are divided into side-by-side and front-and-back configurations, all the survivors have battery-electric powertrains. The two alternative class winners will split the remaining $5 million.

No hybrids made it through the finals after Western Washington University’s Viking 45 failed the lane-change maneuver on Monday.

The Edison2 Very Light Car that had remained in the tandem front-and-back class suffered the failure of its engine-control computer on launch during Monday’s 0-to-60 mph test, and bent valves rendered the car unable to continue.

For all the good and even ingenious ideas brought to MIS, one panelist in the leadership conference reminded the teams that the X Prize cars aren’t for everybody.

“Think of establishing beachheads,” said Bill Van Amburg, senior vice president for CALSTART, the state of California’s technology-forcing agency.

Van Amburg emphasized the importance of listening to fleet buyers like the Geek Squad, which is the Best Buy chain’s mobile service team with familiar Volkswagen New Beetles.

An alliance with a company like Patagonia or Google could be invaluable, he said.

The Zap Alias, left, whooshes past the Aptera 2e during Tuesday's 100-mile performance and efficency test at MIS. The Aptera experienced an electronic failure and didn't complete the test. The Alias later ran out of current on lap 48 of the 50-lap test.