COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY DESIGNS FUEL-CELL PLUG-IN HYBRID SYSTEM

CSU team designed a novel system as part of the EcoCAR2 competition sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy.

ECOCAR2 WAS A THREE-YEAR COLLEGIATE COMPETITION established by the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors to offer an unparalleled hands-on, real-world experience to educate the next generation of automotive engineers. The competition challenged 15 qualifying universities across North America to reduce the environmental impact of a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu (donated by GM) without compromising performance, safety, and consumer acceptability. Specific goals for the teams were to:

Reduce fuel consumption

Reduce well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions

Reduce criteria tailpipe emissions.

As a way of ensuring that the modified Malibus would retain the vehicle's attributes of consumer acceptability, performance, and safety, the teams followed a vehicle-development process modeled after the one used by GM.