Wayne State University receives 2016 Chevrolet Camaro as Michigan's sole participant in the EcoCAR 3 Competition
After successful completion of the first year of the EcoCAR 3 competition, the Wayne State University team's 2016 Chevrolet Camaro has finally been delivered. While the end of year 1 marks the completion of the design phase, the vehicle delivery initiates the integration phase of the competition.
Alyse Waldhorn, project manager, said the team is looking forward to completing their baseline testing so they can begin to integrate major powertrain components into their vehicle in order to achieve their chosen architecture: a pre-transmission parallel (P2) hybrid-electric vehicle. This redesigned vehicle will feature a 2.4 liter, GM-donated flex-fuel engine in line with a GKN AF 130-4 electric motor generator, which is powered by a 9.7 kilowatt-hour energy storage system.
"The program is great because you can learn these skills as an undergraduate and apply them skills in your classes" said Mike Lim, one of the team's leads.
Over the next six months, the team will complete over 40 deliverables, including 14 in-person presentations divided between Winter Workshop at Freescale Semiconductor in Austin, Texas, and Final Competition at the General Motors Desert Proving Grounds in Yuma, Arizona.
"The team is very excited to begin working on the car," said Jerry Ku, associate professor of mechanical engineering and faculty advisor for the EcoCAR team. "We've been working on the design for the past year and can't wait to see how it turns out."
EcoCAR 3 is the latest Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition sponsored by GM and the U.S. Department of Energy. This four-year competition challenges 16 North American universities to re-engineer the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro into a hybrid-electric vehicle to reduce its environmental impact while maintaining the performance expected from the iconic car. The WSU EcoCAR 3 team is the only school in Michigan selected for the competition and comprises more than 40 undergraduate and graduate students studying engineering, communication and business.