Hevt Ecocar 3 Email & Phone Number

Virginia Tech

HEVT is in the first year of the latest Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) EcoCAR 3. This is a four-year competition sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy. EcoCAR 3 challenges 16 universities across North America to reduce the environmental impact of a Chevrolet Camaro while maintaining the safety, performance, and consumer acceptability of the vehicle.

EcoCAR 2: Plugging in to the Future, is a three-year collegiate engineering competition and the only program of its kind. The competition's mission is a vital one: offer an unparalleled hands-on, real-world experience to educate the next generation of automotive engineers. The competition challenges 15 universities across North America to reduce the environmental impact of a Chevrolet Malibu without compromising performance, safety and consumer acceptability.

The EcoCAR competition challenged 16 universities across North America to reduce the environmental impact of vehicles by minimizing the vehicle's fuel consumption and reducing its emissions while retaining the vehicle's performance, safety and consumer appeal. Students used a real-world engineering process to design and integrate their advanced technology solutions into a GM-donated vehicle.Teams followed a real-world approach modeled after GM's global vehicle development process (GVDP), which gave students valuable experience in real-world engineering practices, resource allocation and meeting deliverables. While previous student engineering competitions focused primarily on hardware modifications, EcoCAR included a unique focus on modeling and simulation, as well as subsystem development and testing.

Challenge X was a unique four-year engineering competition that provided the opportunity for students across North America to develop advanced propulsion technology solutions that increased energy efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of light-duty vehicles.To address the issues surrounding personal mobility (like vehicle fuel economy and emissions), General Motors Corporation (GM), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and other government and industry leaders joined to create the advanced vehicle technology competition. This four-year competition managed by Argonne National Laboratory challenged 17 university engineering teams to redesign a Chevrolet Equinox SUV to minimize energy consumption, emissions, and greenhouse gases while maintaining or exceeding the vehicle’s utility, safety, and performance.

FutureTruck was designed to develop alternative propulsion systems and fuels that demonstrate increased energy efficiency and reduced emissions while continuing to meet customer expectations for performance and comfort. The U.S. Department of Energy teamed up with other sponsors to challenge more than 200 of the best and brightest students from 15 universities in the United States and Canada to re-engineer full-size SUVs to meet the needs of the future, producing green, efficient transportation that has the performance, utility, and affordability that customers expect.

FutureCar adopted the goals of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), especially the 3X improvement in fuel economy. USCAR partners, Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, donated a mix of mid-sized sedans to the schools including Intrepids, Luminas, and Taurus’. Fuel used by the teams included reformulated gasoline, diesel and fischer-trophsch diesel, ethanol, compressed natural gas, liquid petroleum gas, hydrogen, dimethyl ether, and electricity. A wide range of events were held to test the vehicles’ performance and the teams’ ability to communicate their design choices and rationale. Performance improved over time with better batteries, control strategies, and experience.

The Propane Vehicle Challenge began with conventional 1996 Chrysler minivan platforms, twelve college teams developed dedicated propane vehicles, while maintaining the performance that consumers expected from gasoline vehicles. The winning entries met the range goal of at least 250 miles with no problem, and the University of Texas-El Paso entry achieved an incredible estimated range of 716 miles upon refueling. 17 colleges and universities participated in the 1997 PVC with some teams using the 1996 Chrysler minivans or Dodge Dakota pickup trucks. For the first time, an award was given for the best component to the University of Texas at El Paso for the development of fuel-distribution spiders. This is a novel fuel-rail design that ensures equal distribution (temperature and pressure) of liquid-phase LPG to each fuel injector.

HEV was an intercollegiate competition created by the U.S. DOE and SAE. The HEV Challenge began in 1993 with 18 Ford Escort Wagons and 12 Ground-Up vehicles; twelve Saturn SL2 sedans were added in 1994, and twelve Neons were added in the 1995 HEV Challenge. The HEV Challenge consisted of events in which vehicle designs and overall dynamic performance were evaluated. The events included acceleration, handling, range, emissions, fuel economy, consumer acceptability, engineering design review, and technical reports. All three HEV Challenges represented the most ambitious and difficult engineering research competitions to date. Although they showed that HEV technology is still developing, these competitions set performance benchmarks and established testing procedures that will affect the engineering community far after the last event was completed.