Eco-Engineers from The Ohio State University
Win Gold at 2009 EcoCAR Competition

TORONTO (June 12, 2009) -- Today university students from The Ohio State University earned top honors at the 2009 finals of the EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge competition in Toronto, Canada for their design of a Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV).

The Ohio State University took first place out of 17 universities in the U.S. and Canada that competed in the first major milestone of this three-year competition which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors, and many others including the Government of Canada. The competition challenges university engineering students across North America to re-engineer a 2009 Saturn VUE to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions while retaining the vehicle’s performance and consumer appeal. More...

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Governor Schwarzenegger visits EcoCAR at 2009 SAE World Congress

California’s Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, paid a surprise visit to the General Motors (GM) exhibit to learn more about the EcoCAR Challenge competition. He spent some time hearing about the EcoCAR program from Kent Helfrich, who serves as the powertrain executive lead for EcoCAR and is also the Director for Powertrain Software Engineering at GM. The Governor participated in the opening session of the 2009 SAE World Congress by taking part in a sit-down question and answer interview session on stage at the AVL Technology Leadership Theatre. More...