Will your next car get one hundred miles per gallon? Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. They may not be on the market in time to be your next car…..but perhaps…the one after that. More than 80 entries have been received so far in the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The competition with at least 10 million dollars in prize money…is to build mass producable vehicles…that can achieve the equivalent of at least 100 miles per gallon….and be both safe and affordable. About the goal, foundation executive director Donald Foley says…

"Not only is it our goal to produce a vehicle, we want many vehicles. And we want this competition to show that there are many different ways to achieve fuel efficiency. And that we hope many different vehicles achieve the metric of 100 miles per gallon or energy equivalent. And if not, we hope many achieve much greater standards than we have on the road today."

So far…the major automakers seem wary about entry. But they may be pressured by the entrance of Tata Motors of India…which is buying Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford. How far off are these super efficient vehicles? The competition…with races in cities across the U.S….is set to conclude…in 2010…two years from now…

"We would hope that the major automakers look at this as an opportunity to show the American people that they too have the capability and the interest in building super efficient vehicles."

You can find more information at progressiveautoxprize.org. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.