U.S. Department of Energy Releases RFP for EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge Competition

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released the Request for Proposals (PDF 481 KB) for its newest collegiate vehicle engineering competition, EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. The EcoCAR competition — the latest in a 19-year series of Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions for university and college engineering students sponsored by DOE and other organizations — is aimed at demonstrating technologies that address the critical need for sustainable personal transportation. DOE is joining with General Motors Corporation (GM), Natural Resources Canada, and many other organizations to sponsor this new three-year collegiate Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition. As in years past, Argonne National Laboratory is managing the competition. Based loosely on the categories of California’s Zero Emissions Vehicle1 (ZEV) regulations, EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge seeks to build and test advanced vehicles with a wide range of potentially feasible production technologies that can be used in future cars and light trucks to achieve much higher energy efficiency and lower GHG emissions.

Participation in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge will be determined by the Request for Proposal (PDF 481 KB) process, which is open to accredited engineering schools in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The organizers anticipate selecting up to 16 schools from North America to participate in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. Schools wishing to be considered for participation in the competition must complete a modeling problem, develop and submit conceptual designs for two allowable vehicle categories detailed in the Request for Proposal (PDF 481 KB), and provide high levels of support from their schools. The organizers will then select schools for participation in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge on the basis of multiple factors, including the quality of their proposal, their available facilities, their level of school support, their financial support, their technical expertise and experience, and their geographic diversity.

See earlier story, "DOE Announces its New Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition."