Anyone who’s recently paid to fill up a gas tank can get behind America’s quest for the next great innovation in fuel-efficient vehicles. And why not enlist the country’s budding engineers?
That’s the idea behind the EcoCAR Challenge, a joint effort between General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy. The three-year competition put teams from 16 colleges to work designing a power train and other energy-efficient components for a Saturn VUE donated by GM. Penn State’s Advanced Vehicle Team is the only Pennsylvania group taking part in the challenge.
“It has to be as fuel-efficient as possible and as consumer-friendly as possible,” explains Allison Lilly, outreach coordinator for the 40-person team.
The result of the Penn State students’ efforts is a lithium-ion battery-powered hybrid vehicle that can travel up to 50 miles on a single charge, or up to 300 miles on a charge combined with a tank of biodiesel. It takes between four and eight hours to charge the battery. A display on the instrument panel shows the driver how much juice is left in the battery. Plus, the vehicle takes advantage of regenerative braking, which converts some of the energy produced by stopping the car into power for the engine.
After three years of work the EcoCAR finals are taking place now in Milford, Mich., before moving on to Washington, D.C. After the competition the Saturn will return to Penn State’s campus so future students can work on it.
Source: Allison Lilly, Penn State Advanced Vehicle Team
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen