Crossover to sustainable mobility

Background
Since 1987, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has sponsored more than two dozen competitions which challenged thousands of students to overcome the problem of improving fuel economy, emissions, and safety while maintaining the utility required by today's consumers. The next iteration in which the spirit of this competition continues its 19-year old history is EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. Engineering students across North America will be given the opportunity to work with an array of leading edge automotive development technologies, with the objective of solving real world problems.

EcoCAR
General Motors Corporation (GM), DOE, and other government and industry leaders have developed a competition that goes well beyond what any other competition has tried to achieve with EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. EcoCAR is different from other competitions because GM is offering students unprecedented access to the world of vehicle design. Students will take a Real World approach following the vehicle design process used in industry to achieve Real Results.

The competition involves teams from 16 accredited engineering schools from across North America. Starting in the spring of 2008, the competition runs for three years and focuses around the re-engineering of a GM crossover sport utility vehicle. Students will work with the original GM vehicle platform and integrate new advanced drive-train systems involving alternative fuels such as hydrogen, ethanol, and biodiesel. The vehicles will maintain performance and minimize environmental impact through the cutting of emissions and efficient use of energy.

Competition Details
The first year of the competition focuses on the vehicle design. Students will be using the same software that GM uses to model and simulate various drive-train systems, eventually settling on their own vehicle design. Students will be required to do extensive simulation and testing to find the best design for integrating their power-train and vehicle sub-systems. Once the teams have successfully completed the vehicle design process, at the end of year one, they receive the crossover sport utility vehicle.

Years two and three are all about turning the design into reality. The teams will work to implement their vehicle designs to create some of the most efficient, reliable, and environmentally friendly vehicles ever. Students must be creative and innovative to overcome challenges faced by the use of alternative fuels. The competition promises to uncover exciting new technologies to further the world of automotive design and help us integrate the prototypes.

Links

Official EcoCAR Challenge Homepage
Competition Sponsors