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Hybrid creation could change the way you drive

Virginia Tech's Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team (HEVT) from the College of Engineering took top honors during the second-year national Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility competition, held at the GM Mesa Desert Proving Grounds in Arizona.

The competition encourages engineering students to help develop advanced propulsion technology for the next generation of energy-efficient, low-emissions vehicles.

The HEVT, led by mechanical engineering professor and faculty adviser Doug Nelson, is among 17 university teams selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and GM to compete in the three-year event.

Virginia Tech President Charles
Steger (right) discusses the inner
workings of the Equinox with
former HEVT leader Steve
Boyd during a test-drive event
before the Challenge X 2006
competition.

DOE and GM gave each team chosen to participate in Challenge X a Chevrolet Equinox and $10,000 seed money, as well as up to $25,000 in automotive parts.

In addition to placing best overall, the Virginia Tech team — most of them undergraduates — won first place in best-written technical report, lowest emissions, and lowest petroleum consumption. They revamped their sport utility vehicle so that it achieved a 75 percent petroleum reduction from the standard Equinox consumption.

To succeed in Challenge X, the HEVT had to produce a fuel-efficient, low-emissions Equinox that also retained all of its original performance and utility factors, including fully operating air conditioning, cargo space, and acceleration performance.

Nearing their competition deadline,
the HEVT often works into
the night at the Ware Lab.

To this end, they integrated an E85 Saab engine to the Equinox with a parallel hybrid electric drive.

The E85 engine is unlike the original Equinox engine, in that its design allows it to operate on a fuel mixture that contains higher concentrations of ethanol.

Ethanol — long popular as grain alcohol — is a renewable fuel typically distilled from corn.

The HEVT’s integration of an E85 engine reduces petroleum consumption, while the E85 fuel mixture produces fewer overall greenhouse gas emissions.

"With the E85 engine and two battery-powered electric motors, we can use either to turn the wheels — or we can use them together," Nelson said. "The motors also can be used as a generator to absorb energy from the engine and recharge the batteries."

Furthermore, the U.S. government and auto industry are also paying serious attention to ethanol. In 2004, Congress passed legislation that offers tax credits for building fueling stations that supply E85. So far, reports the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, there are more than 1,000 service stations in the United States that sell E85.

"Developing the advanced technologies that reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil is critical to the future prosperity of our country," said Ed Wall, program manager for the FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies Office of DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

In addition to primary sponsorship from DOE and GM, the Virginia Tech team secured industry support that included an electric drive train donated by Ballard, a battery pack donated by Cobasys, and control system hardware donated by National Instruments.

"These students are working on the same challenges that our GM engineers continually work on every day — high-efficiency, high performance vehicles that consume less fuel and produce fewer emissions from the well to the wheel," said Dan Hancock, vice president of GM Powertrain Engineering. "This hands-on learning is providing them the necessary skills to embark on a career in engineering with a competitive advantage."

Under the leadership of Kurt Johnson, a mechanical engineering graduate student, the more than 30 student members of the HEVT are perfecting their Equinox for the final Challenge X competition event, slated for May 30-June 7, 2007, at GM's Milford Proving Grounds near Detroit.

The Virginia Tech Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team with their
award-winning SUV at the GM Proving Grounds in Mesa, Ariz.