Photo by Roy Feldman/Challenge X

The 2008 Challenge X is over and a hybrid clean diesel version of the Chevrolet Equinox (running on B20) has driven away with the top prize. Mississippi State University is the team behind the winning vehicle, and beat out 16 other student teams from across North America. As we learned when we rode in Michigan Technological University's hybrid Equinox last month, Challenge X is a multi-year challenge to modify an Equinox to get more miles per gallon while not giving up any comfort or performance. Teams tried all sorts of alternative power options to make the SUVs cleaner, and the MSU team designed a through-the-road parallel hybrid electric system paired with a turbocharged direct-injection diesel engine (filled with biodiesel) to get a 38 percent efficiency gain and the win, Science Daily reports. The University of Wisconsin – Madison and Ohio State University came in second and third place, respectively, with similar powertrains. The Diesel Technology Forum was happy to read about the diesels' standings in the final result and issued a press release praising the winners. Read it after the jump.

What's next? This fall, the Department of Energy (DOE), GM and Natural Resources Canada will open up EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. Once again, 17 teams will take part but the vehicles due for eco-updates will be Saturn VUEs.

Daryl Hannah prefers guys with green cars

We've been covering Challenge X since we first started our blogging careers, but we somehow missed the results of an extremely interesting survey which was conducted by the group of college students. The survey focused on green automobiles and society's view of their drivers. It turns out that in this day and age, you have a better shot at attracting attention from the opposite sex if you drive an eco-friendly car as opposed to a sports car. In fact, almost nine out of ten women would prefer to get to know a guy with a green car. Your social life would improve too, as eighty percent of respondents would rather talk to someone with a fuel efficient car that someone with the latest model sports car.

Other interesting tidbits gleaned from the survey include the notion that $4 for a gallon for gas could be a tipping point to get consumers to actively pursue a green car purchase. There's plenty more interesting information contained in the press release pasted after the break.

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I took a ride this morning through downtown Detroit in a 30+ mpg Equinox. Originally, the 2005 Equinox got 25 mpg on the highway and 19 in the city. Two Michigan Technological University seniors represented their school at a ride and drive event at GM's headquarters for the Challenge X while the SAE Congress was going on down the street at Cobo Hall. Todd Cimermancic, team leader, and Doug Sarsen, who is in charge of the powertrain, have both been working on the MTU vehicle since this Challenge X began three years ago and were great guides to explain how a group of just over a dozen student (it's fluctuated through the years) has gotten a 30 percent fuel economy increase out of a 2005 Chevy Equinox for the low price of $250,000. Actually, that's how much money has been put into the SUV all together through the years and includes the $300 roof art.

The MTU team decided that reducing weight was the best way to increase mpg, and added lightweight rear seats and polycarbonate windows to shave off a few pounds. The vehicle also has a gas engine that powers the front wheels and a 55 kW electric motor on the rear wheels. With regenerative braking, the Equinox achieves a 30 percent mpg bump, one of GM's original goals for Challenge X. The MTU team has been having trouble with the emissions part of the Challenge, but Cimermancic said he was confident that they'd hit the 30 percent reduction goal with the latest iteration of the system. We'll know the final results when Challenge X ends next month in Washington, D.C. For now, check out our video of this morning's ride after the jump. These kids are pros on camera.

The three-year Challenge X program from GM will end in May with a championship announcement in Washington, D.C. 17 student teams are adding biofuel, hybrid, PHEV and/or hydrogen fuel cell propulsion systems to the Equinoxes. Before the student get to find out who's re-engineered a Chevy Equinox into the best green ride, there are still tests to run and promotion to be had.

The Challenge X vehicle from Michigan Tech will be in Detroit this week and we'll try to make time for another spin in the SUV during the SAE Congress. In mid-2007, the MTU vehicle's belt-alternator starter system (similar to what GM uses in the production Saturn Vue and Aura) felt smoother to us than some production hybrids, even though the team was sitting in the lower half of the pack in the overall rankings.


[Source: GM]

Last spring we provided a bunch of coverage of Year Three of GM's Challenge X program. Challenge X is a GM-sponsored student competition where teams from universities all around North America use the company's global development process to convert a Chevrolet Equinox into a vehicle with some sort of alternative powertrain. The goal is for the teams to produce the most efficient vehicle while still meeting customer expectations for performance and refinement. Teams are currently gearing up for the final phase of the competition. One of this year's events was a road rally out in California that included an afternoon stop at Jay Leno's super garage. Leno has all manner of machinery in his garage including a 1906 Baker electric car and a biodiesel 2007 Corvette. In a post on the GMnext blog Mickey Bly talks about the competition, and the upcoming final event that will conclude with the championship announcement in Washington, DC in May. Micky is the director of hybrid vehicle integration at GM.

[Source: GMnext]

The Challenge-X student design competition sponsored by General Motors and the Department of Energy is now in the last of a four-year schedule with the final phase coming up in May 2008. The Challenge-X gave teams of engineering students the opportunity to convert a Chevrolet Equinox to an alternative power-train. The teams designed and installed a wide variety of hybrid and alternative fuel power-trains.

As the Challenge-X program draws to a close, GM has announced the follow-up competition: EcoCAR. Just as the car makers are trying to shorten their development times, so too must the students. EcoCar will last three years and interested teams will have to submit their applications this winter. GM will evaluate the entrants and select 16 teams to compete with an announcement coming next April. This time around students will have to take a GM car and engineer a power-train that meets CARB zero-emissions-vehicle requirements.

[Source: General Motors]

At the award press conference for Year three of the Challenge-X competition General Motors provided the opportunity for attendees to ride and drive in some of the competitor vehicles. I had time to drive the vehicles from Michigan Tech University, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Ohio State University. The UWM and OSU vehicles both used the same 1.9L Opel diesel engine as the winning team from Mississippi State. The Michigan Tech team used a Ford 2.0L gas engine.

All three vehicles used a through-the-road hybrid configuration. That means that the internal combustion engine drove the front wheels through a conventional automatic (MTU, OSU) or manual transmission (UWM) while an electric motor drove the rear wheels. The only mechanical connection between the ICE and electric drives is through the tires and road.

Continue reading after the jump

... Mississippi State University. The team from Mississippi built a through-the-road parallel hybrid system into an Equinox. The internal combustion engine was a 1.9L Opel turbocharged and direct injected diesel engine driving the front wheels through an automatic transmission and fueled by B20 biodiesel. The MSU vehicle managed a forty-eight percent increase in fuel economy compared to a stock Equinox.

Second place went to the team from University of Wisconsin-Madison that also built a through-the-road diesel parallel hybrid with the same Opel engine. Third place went to Virginia Tech and their 2.3L E85 parallel hybrid. We'll have more details tomorrow along with some driving impressions of some of the vehicles.

Rick Wagoner checks out the Challenge-X competitors, click the image for more photos

As the year three competition for Challenge-X continued on Friday at the GM Proving Ground, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner stopped by to check out the activity. Wagoner toured the work area where students were working on their cars and had lunch with representatives of the teams.

Wagoner also drove the vehicles from the teams that won the first two years of the competition, the University of Waterloo and Virginia Tech. The competition is continuing until next Thursday when GM Vice-President of R&D Larry Burns will announce the winner at GM Headquarters in Detroit.

[Source: General Motors, thanks to Noel for the tip]

Click on the photos for more images from the Challenge-X competition

Seventeen teams of engineering students from all over North America descended on the GM Proving Ground in Milford, MI this week to participate in the Challenge-X competition. This is the third year of a four year cycle in the competition sponsored by General Motors and the Department of Energy. The teams are following the GM Global Vehicle Development Process and and are being judged at the end of each year. The goal is to integrate sustainable mobility technologies into a Chevy Equinox crossover.

The first year focused on using mathematical simulation and computer modeling to develop the vehicle design and subsystem control strategies. In the second year the teams had to turn their digital and paper designs into running prototypes. General Motors provided each team with an Equinox, seed money, technical assistance and mentoring to help make their initial concepts a reality. Other companies such as AVL Powertrain Engineering, Cobasys, Michelin and many more also provided assistance and supplies.

Read some more about the technologies being used after the jump.



[Source: General Motors]