Tech Students Offer Fuel Solutions: Drive Systems Could Influence Direction of U.S. Efficiency Efforts

From Detroit Free Press

Sick of paying $40 or more to fill up your tank? Worried about global warming? If so, you might be interested in the advanced drive systems that student engineers showed off in downtown Detroit on Thursday.

As gas prices remain above $3 a gallon, teams of college students involved in the Challenge X automotive engineering competition used a variety of advanced propulsion technologies. Their goal was to increase fuel efficiency and make vehicles more environmentally friendly without sacrificing their appeal to consumers.

The propulsion systems aren’t planned for production right away, but top engineers from General Motors Corp. and the U.S. Department of Energy said the students’ work could influence future product decisions, help address concerns about the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and limit the emissions believed to cause global warming.

"I think the work these young people are doing is going to help solve our energy problems," said John Mizroch, a deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Energy. The teams, which assembled at GM’s world headquarters in the Renaissance Center, built systems to adapt Chevrolet Equinox SUVs to use a variety of alternative fuels. For the competition, the teams were graded not only on environmental impact, but also on traditional consumer considerations, including acceleration, ride and handling and towing capability.

The winning team from Mississippi State University powered its Equinox with a parallel hybrid system that uses a 1.9-liter GM direct-injection, turbo-diesel engine paired with an electric motor to power the back wheels.

The team’s propulsion system captures the gasoline equivalent of better than 35 miles per gallon, emits slightly less carbon dioxide than traditional petroleum-fueled vehicles and uses 20 percent less petroleum than the average vehicle.

The system’s fuel economy compares with the 34-mile-per-gallon combined fuel economy rating on the Ford Escape Hybrid and the 29 m.p.g. rating for the Saturn Vue Hybrid and Toyota Highlander Hybrid.

"They definitely could produce hybrids in this configuration for production," said Becky Gunn, 22, the team leader from the second-place University of Wisconsin, which used a propulsion system similar to that used by Mississippi State’s team.

Larry Burns, GM’s vice president of development, research and strategic planning, said the students’ work is "truly going to make a difference in the world."

GM has already hired 40 students who have worked on Challenge X vehicles in the past three years and expects to extend offers to as many as a dozen current team members as early as next week, Burns said.