DOE Releases RFP for EcoCAR Challenge Competition
January 13, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
Based loosely on the categories of California's Zero Emissions Vehicle1 (ZEV) regulations, EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge seeks to build and test advanced vehicles with a production technologies that can be used in future cars and light trucks to achieve higher energy efficiency and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, according to the DOE.
The technical goals of the challenge are to construct and demonstrate vehicles that, when compared to the stock production vehicle, can:
- Incorporate technologies that reduce petroleum energy consumption on the basis of a total fuel cycle including well-to-wheel (WTW) analysis.
- Increase vehicle energy efficiency.
- Reduce criteria and WTW GHG and criteria emissions.
- Maintain consumer acceptability in the areas of performance, utility and safety.
The challenge is seeking to develop and demonstrate advanced vehicle technologies loosely based on categories from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulations. The following four vehicle categories will be supported:
- Hybrid electric vehicle less than 50 kilowatt (kW) peak electric motor power.
- Hybrid electric vehicle greater than 50 kW peak electric motor power.
- Range-extending and full-function electric vehicles.
- Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
These four categories are similar to vehicle types D, E, II and III in the CARB ZEV regulations, said the DOE.
Both charge-sustaining and charge-depleting (plug-in) versions of these vehicle types will be considered for the challenge. Manual transmissions and through-the-road parallel hybrid electric vehicle configurations are not allowed, said the DOE.
The DOE is teaming with General Motors Corp. (GM), Natural Resources Canada (NRC) and other organizations to sponsor the three-year competition.
The RFP for EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge is available at http://www.challengex.org/pdfs/ecocar_rfp.pdf.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Vehicle Technologies Program.