April 24, 2014: The U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors Co. announce the official launch of the EcoCAR 3

McMaster University is proud to be one of two Canadian universities participating in EcoCAR 3; North America’s premier collegiate-level automotive engineering competition. EcoCAR 3 is the latest in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) series.

AVTCs represent a unique collaboration of government, industry, and academic partners who combine resources to explore sustainable transportation solutions. AVTCs are managed by Argonne National Laboratory, a DOE research development facility, and have collectively provided thousands of students with engineering experience that has proven invaluable upon their graduation and entrance into the industry. Since AVTC’s inception in 1988, the core objective has been to educate the next generation of automotive engineers and ensure they are well prepared to meet the numerous transportation and energy-related challenges faced by the North American automotive industry.

Sponsored by General Motors (GM), EcoCAR 3 is challenging teams from 16 North American universities to re-engineer a Chevrolet Camaro into a hybrid-electric vehicle while maintaining the muscle and performance associated with the iconic ‘Camaro’ marque. Teams have four years (2014-2018) to design, simulate, integrate, and test vehicle powertrains to meet specific goals set by the EcoCAR 3 competition committee. These include: reducing energy consumption, reducing well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions, reducing criteria tailpipe emissions, maintaining consumer acceptability (performance, utility, safety), and meeting energy/environmental goals while considering cost and innovation.

In search of success, the McMaster Engineering EcoCAR 3 Team hopes to build upon McMaster University’s reputation as an outstanding technical school and academic leader in the development of sustainable advanced vehicle technology. Furthermore, by working closely with the McMaster Institute for Automotive Research and Technology (MacAUTO) and the McMaster-based Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Hybrid Powertrain Program research group, the McMaster Engineering EcoCAR 3 Team is looking to establish McMaster University as a major competitor in EcoCAR 3 and in AVTCs to come.