EcoCAR Finals Begin at GM's Milford Proving Ground
Students competing in the "EcoCar Next Challenge" collegiate engineering competition began putting their vehicles through the paces for the last time in the Detroit area Thursday before the winning team is announced next week in Washington, D.C.
The event at General Motors' Milford Proving Ground marks the final step of a three-year project that afforded some of North America's most brilliant engineering students the opportunity to redesign a GM-donated vehicle.
For the next week, the EcoCars will undergo safety, emissions, and other technical inspections in the same location used to test GM production vehicles. The test information will be crucial for the judges as they evaluate which team has been the most successful over the course of the competition.
Sixteen teams have used alternative powertrain technologies to reduce the environmental impact of their vehicles while maintaining consumer appeal.
"Allowing the students behind-the-scenes access to our proving ground really gives them a fuller picture of what their future can hold as a leading automotive engineer," said Mary Barra, senior vice president, global product development, General Motors. "It's this real-world experience that makes the EcoCar program so valuable to both the students and our industry partners."
GM's Milford Proving Ground, the site of all finals testing, encompasses nearly 4,000 acres across Michigan's Livingston and Oakland counties. For more than 80 years, GM has used the proving ground to test vehicles for safety, compatibility with the environment, ease and comfort of operation, reliability, durability and efficiency. Now the EcoCar vehicles will go through similar testing to evaluate their roadworthiness and appeal.
Immediately following the Milford Proving Ground event, teams will head to Washington, DC, where on June 16, the students will have the opportunity to show off their vehicles for Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Washington media at Department of Energy headquarters. The EcoCar winner will be announced the morning of June 17.
More at www.ecocarchallenge.org.
EcoCar is a three-year competition that builds on the 20-year history of DOE advanced vehicle technology competitions by giving engineering students the chance to design and build advanced vehicles that demonstrate leading-edge automotive technologies. General Motors provides production vehicles, vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring and operational support.
