This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.

May 29, 2013

Penn State Named EcoCAR 2 Competition Year Two Winner

EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future named Pennsylvania State University its Year Two winner at the EcoCAR 2013 Competition in San Diego, California on May 24. The 15 universities competing in EcoCAR 2 recently gathered in Yuma, Arizona, for six days of vehicle testing and evaluation on drive quality and environmental impact at General Motors Desert Proving Ground. The competition then moved to San Diego for a second round of judging by automotive industry experts.

EcoCAR 2 is a three-year competition managed by the Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory and sponsored by the Energy Department, General Motors, and 30 other government and industry leaders. The competition gives students the opportunity to gain real-world automotive engineering experience while striving to improve the environmental impact and energy efficiency of the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. The students converted the gasoline-fueled vehicle to run on a variety of fuels, including E85 (a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) and electricity.

Pennsylvania State University impressed judges representing various EcoCAR 2 sponsors with its E85 plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (EV). The team was the first to pass safety and technical inspections and an on-road safety evaluation. California State Los Angeles excelled with its ethanol-fueled vehicle, placing second. Ohio State University took third place overall after demonstrating its series-parallel hybrid EV. The teams will now spend Year Three of EcoCAR 2 perfecting their designs before the competition finals in Washington, D.C., in May 2014. See the Energy Department press release and the EcoCAR 2013 Competition website.