In the ongoing quest for fuel-efficient vehicles, major automobile manufacturers like Toyota and Honda have come out with gas-electric hybrid cars. These cars can get mileage of more than fifty miles per gallon. Now a team of students at Penn State is working to achieve a similar goal with a gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle. Brad Linder has more.
FutureTruck
Students at Penn State are converting a gas-guzzling Sport Utility Vehicle into an energy-efficient machine.
May 27, 2002

This June, fifteen teams across the country will participate in the third annual FutureTruck competition, designing an environmentally-friendly SUV. Last year, Penn State's team came in ninth place… This year, they hope to do better.

"Our stated goal is to finish in the top five," says team mechanical engineering professor and team advisor Dan Hawarth. "I think we have a pretty good shot at it. We have a lot of experience."

Hawarth says converting a 2002 Ford Explorer into a fuel-efficient vehicle is an interesting challenge, which gives students a chance to apply their studies to a real world situation.

"There are very few opportunities for students at a research institution like Penn State to get real hands-on experience," says Hawarth. "And this is an opportunity for them to do that."

He adds that students perform all of the technical work, but also have to deal with fundraising, budget constraints, and working with a group of 30 people on a large project-all things that give students a good idea of life after Penn State.

Graduate student Brian Kleback says his team is eager to take on another real-world pressure. The SUV will be judged on its commercial appeal.

"You could have a vehicle that gets no emissions," he says, "and if a consumer doesn't like it then no one's really going to want to use it and it's not really going to have a good impact."

Kleback says an important goal is to construct a vehicle that handles well, has some power, and looks good-otherwise a fuel-efficient vehicle wouldn't be very marketable.

Mechanical engineering junior Jim Schmalzried says the project includes elements of environmental problem-solving, and engineering design.

"It's helping the environment a lot by pushing technology as far as we can as students," says Schmalzried. He says the event, sponsored by government and industry, made it possible for the team to work with a donated vehicle, get an expensive electric motor, and work on complex electrical systems.

Team advisor Dan Hawarth says the event does more than provide industry with a set of design ideas. It also encourages the next generation of automotive engineers. "It's not your father's sport utility vehicle anymore," says Hawarth. "There are system issues, high voltage electronics, things you don't usually think about when you think about cars."

The national FutureTruck competition will take place in Arizona and California from June 11 - 21.


Additional Story
More on the FutureTruck.

Additional Soundbite
Team advisor Dan Hawarth says over half of all vehicles sold in North America are small trucks, meaning SUVS, minivans, and pickup trucks, which generally get poor mileage.

National FutureTruck
Information on the national competition.

Penn State's FutureTruck
PSUs hybrid electric vehicle team website.

The SUV InfoLink
Learn the operating costs, environmental concerns and safety concerns associated with SUVs.




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