I am working for a project for my school. We are tasked with re-engineering a 2013 Chevy Malibu into a Hybrid electric vehicle. It is a huge project with dozens of organizations a list here
It would help us a lot if you and your friends "liked" us on facebook.
www.facebook.com/CalStateLAEcoCAR2
If you want more information here it goes.
The competition's mission is a vital one: offer an unparalleled hands-on, real-world experience to educate the next generation of automotive engineers. The competition challenges 15 universities across North America to reduce the environmental impact of a Chevrolet Malibu without compromising performance, safety and consumer acceptability.
Established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors (GM), EcoCAR 2 builds upon a successful 23-year history of DOE Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTC) that exemplify the power of public/private partnerships in providing invaluable experience and training to promising, young minds entering the North American job market. EcoCAR 2 follows the widely acclaimed competition series EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge.
Shaped by the greatest design changes in the history of the automotive industry, EcoCAR 2 requires students to explore a variety of powertrain architectures focusing on electric drive vehicle technology. EcoCAR 2 teams will utilize a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu, donated by General Motors as the integration platform for their advanced vehicle design.
During the three-year program EcoCAR 2 teams will follow a real-world Vehicle Development Process (VDP) modeled after GM's VDP. The VDP serves as a roadmap for the engineering process of designing, building and refining their advanced technology vehicles. Following a VDP will give the teams an opportunity to improve their vehicles efficiency while retaining consumer acceptability, performance and safety.
The Cal State LA team chose the "parallel through the road" architecture also referred to as "eAWD" - (electric all wheel drive) and are developing a system to improve the car's efficiency.
Here is is small video describing the other architectures teams have chosen.
Here is a list of the other schools competing.
http://www.ecocar2.org/...