The U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors have been conducting a new EcoCAR competition, with year one of the EcoCAR 3 runs being complete. Competing universities and trade schools were tasked with taking a next-generation Chevrolet Camaro and making it as eco-friendly as possible.
The DOE and GM have announced that the overall winner for EcoCAR 3’s first year is the Ohio State University team, who are the defending EcoCAR 2 champions. Second place went to Virtinia Tech and third to the University of Waterloo.
As part of the EcoCAR 3 Competition, each university team chose a different innovation that they will incorporate into their competition vehicle. OSU’s was DRIVE: Driver Recommendation for Increased Vehicle Efficiency—an infotainment system that allows the driver to input a destination, then calculates the most efficient route and velocity to that destination.
“Without having the full picture of the attributes of the new 2016 Camaro,” Al Oppenheiser, Chevrolet Camaro Vehicle Chief Engineer, “the students from The Ohio State University were able to develop a strategy that can turn this high-performance vehicle into a cutting-edge, eco-friendly alternative. Not only does the 2016 Camaro’s leaner, stiffer platform provide an optimal base vehicle for these students to achieve their powertrain goals, the exterior of the vehicle was designed to specifically enhance efficiency.”
Established by DOE and GM, and managed by Argonne National Laboratory, EcoCAR 3 is the latest Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) aimed at developing the next generation of automotive leaders. The four-year program concludes summer 2018.
