NCSU EcoCarEcoCAR is a three-year collegiate competition sponsored by the US Department of Energy, General Motors, and Argonne National Labs. The competition involves converting a gas vehicle into an electric, hybrid, or fuel cell vehicle while retaining its comfort and drivability on the road. NCSU has entered to do a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, or possibly even a battery electric vehicle with a potential range extending capability through an on-board fuel battery generator. Currently, this is year 1 in the competition, which involves designing and modeling a proposed vehicle architecture. General Motors will be donating a new Saturn Vue to each school in year 2 of the competition, beginning in Fall Semester 2009. Years 2 and 3 involve implementation and refinement of the design proposal from year 1. Additionally, a General Motors engineer will be mentoring students in the competition with the design process, which allows students to experience the engineering process for vehicle design and implementation. |