What is EcoCAR Challenge?  North America's Premier Collegiate Automotive Engineering Competition

EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge is a new collegiate advanced vehicle technology competition (AVTC) which kicked off in the fall of 2008. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors (GM), as well as by Natural Resources Canada and other industry leaders, EcoCAR challenges engineering students from universities across North America to re-engineer a GM vehicle, minimizing energy consumption, emissions, and greenhouse gases while maintaining the vehicle’s utility, safety, and performance.

In EcoCAR, students will design, build, and integrate advanced propulsion technologies into their competition vehicles, which will be classified in categories similar to the vehicle categories from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) regulations. Students are encouraged to explore a variety of solutions, including electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell powertrains. In addition, they will incorporate lightweight materials, improve aerodynamics, and utilize alternative fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel, and hydrogen.

GM will provide the teams with production vehicles and parts, seed money, technical mentoring, and operational support throughout the three-year program. The DOE and Argonne National Laboratory will provide competition management, team evaluation, technical guidance, and logistical support. EcoCAR follows the successful student engineering competition, “Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility,” also sponsored by GM and DOE.

Building on the strengths of the National University Transportation Center at Missouri S&T, the team is developing a hydrogen fuel cell plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (FC PHEV). This technology represents a dramatic transformation to a more energy efficient means of transportation. EcoCAR is based on a real-world integrated vehicle design and development process. Missouri S&T will develop their vehicle following a modified GM Global Vehicle Development Process (GVDP) for each phase of the three-year competition. This competition complements ongoing Missouri S&T research and demonstration projects that are working towards making the hydrogen-powered society of the future a reality by studying the entire process of hydrogen production, storage and end use.

What’s New: EcoCAR Challenge Summer Camp What's Now & What's New - Plug-in Hydrogen EcoCars Session I: July 6-10  •  Session II: July 27-31, 2009 For rising high school sophomores, juniors and seniors