TransForum Vol. 8, No. 1

EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge for College Engineering Students

Argonne’s Mike Wahlstrom and DOE’s Steven Boyd perform a safety inspection on U. Tennessee’s vehicle at the Challenge X Winter Workshop in Los Angeles.

Kicking off in the 2008-2009 academic year, EcoCAR is the latest in a 19-year series of Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), an automotive manufacturer and managed by Argonne National Laboratory. The goals of the competitions are to stimulate the development and demonstration of advanced propulsion and alternative fuel technologies and to train the next generation of engineers to lead the industry in the 21st Century. EcoCAR is a three-year competition that will challenge students to re-engineer a vehicle donated by General Motors (GM), using advanced vehicle technologies to reduce the vehicle’s total environmental impact and lead the way to a sustainable transportation future.

Students from seventeen university teams will follow the General Motors Global Vehicle Development process to design, simulate and build their advanced technology vehicles. Students will gain hands-on experience in a real-world vehicle development process and will build leadership and teamwork skills, not only in engineering, but also in business development, fundraising, journalism and public relations.

Selected EcoCAR teams will design and build fully functional electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid or fuel cell hybrid vehicles based on similar categories from the California Zero Emission Vehicle regulations. The student teams will integrate advancedtechnology powertrains, lightweight materials, aerodynamic improvements, and will use various alternative fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel and hydrogen into their vehicles.

At the end of the three-year competition each team is expected to have developed a fully-functional, production prototype vehicle that has higher fuel economy and lower greenhouse gas and criteria emissions while still retaining the utility and customer acceptability of the stock vehicle.

Seventeen competing teams from North America will be selected from the 300 accredited engineering schools who received DOE’s EcoCAR Request for Proposal released on December 3, 2007. The winners will be announced on May 21, 2008, at the EcoCAR Kickoff at DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C. The date coincides with the finish line ceremony and finale of ChallengeX, DOE’s current collegiate vehicle competition (see www.challengex.org).

The selection of schools for the EcoCAR Challenge is based on several factors including the quality of their proposal, available facilities, school and financial support, technical expertise and experience, and geographic diversity. Teams will receive seed money, a wide range of powertrain components, a vehicle donated by GM, and technical and mentoring support from the competition sponsors. In turn, schools must provide matching funds, class credit, faculty advising, and logistical and promotional support for their teams.

In Year One, teams will focus on vehicle design using Argonne’s Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit, sophisticated software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop simulation techniques, and rapid control system prototyping.

In Years Two and Three, in a vehicle donated by GM, students will install powertrain components and controllers developed in Year One. Students will build the vehicle they modeled in Year One and continue to refine their simulation, testing and hardware control efforts while improving vehicle efficiency and functionality.

At the end of each of the three EcoCAR years, there will be a weeklong competition at a GM vehicle proving ground or other appropriate location in North America.

EcoCAR Challenge is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Vehicle Technologies Program.

May 2008