EcoCAR 2: Plugging in to the Future, is a three-year collegiate engineering competition and the only program of its kind. The competition’s mission is a vital one: offer an unparalleled hands-on, real-world experience to educate the next generation of automotive engineers. The competition challenges 15 universities across North America to reduce the environmental impact of a Chevrolet Malibu without compromising performance, safety and consumer acceptability. The CSU Vehicle Innovation Team (CSU VIT) was selected as a participating school in April of 2011.
During the three-year program, the CSU Vehicle Innovation Team will follow a real-world Vehicle Development Process (VDP) modeled after GM’s VDP. The VDP serves as a road map for the engineering process of designing, building and refining CSU’s advanced technology vehicle.
Established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors (GM), EcoCAR 2 builds upon a successful 23-year history of DOE Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTC) that exemplify the power of public/private partnerships in providing invaluable experience and training to promising, young minds entering the North American job market. EcoCAR 2 follows the widely-acclaimed competition series EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge.
Shaped by the greatest design changes in the history of the automotive industry, EcoCAR 2 requires the CSU team to explore a variety of powertrain architectures focusing on electric drive vehicle technology. The CSU team will utilize a Chevrolet Malibu, donated by General Motors as the integration platform for their advanced vehicle design.