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North America’s Premier College-level Automotive Enginering Competition
May 12-May 21, 2008
NEW YORK CITY | BALTIMORE | WASHINGTON, D.C.
Challenge X is a unique four-year engineering competition that provides the opportunity for students across North America to develop advanced propulsion technology solutions that will increase energy efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of light-duty vehicles.
To address the issues surrounding personal mobility (like vehicle fuel economy and emissions),
General Motors Corporation (GM), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and other government
and industry leaders have joined to create the advanced vehicle technology competition entitled
Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility. This four-year competition managed
by Argonne National Laboratory challenges 17 university engineering teams to redesign
a Chevrolet Equinox SUV to minimize energy consumption, emissions, and greenhouse gases
while maintaining or exceeding the vehicle’s utility, safety, and performance.
Year One of the competition focused on modeling, simulation, and testing of the vehicle powertrain and vehicle subsystems selected by each school. Teams integrated these components into their own Chevrolet Equinox donated by GM during Year Two, and the vehicles competed at GM’s Desert Proving Ground in Mesa, Arizona, in June of 2006. For Year Three, students worked to further improve their vehicles and then competed in the 2007 competition held at the GM Milford Proving Ground where their vehicles were tested extensively to measure their fuel economy, emissions, and performance gains. Mississippi State University took top honors in the 2007 competition.
Now, in the fourth and final year of Challenge X, teams are working to refine their Equinoxes to showroom quality while improving their vehicle’s performance and consumer appeal and will demonstrate the reliability and dependability of their final vehicles during a 400-mile road rally from New York City to Washington, D.C. in May 2008.
