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NEWS RELEASE

Embry-Riddle’s EcoCar Designers Pick Volt-Style Powertrain for Their Car of Future

Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 6, 2009 -- In the heart of car-racing country, a team of students at a world-renowned aviation university is designing the car of the future. The students, from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., are helping to “green” Detroit’s best effort with their powertrain design, which is similar to that of the Chevy Volt.

The student engineers are devising a Power-Split Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) propulsion system for a fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly, high-performance car they’re designing for the EcoCar Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors, and other government and industry leaders.

With the EREV, they’ll be able to test and demonstrate full performance with a hybrid-electric powertrain that has both an all-electric driving capability and a diesel engine/electric motor combination that can extend the electric range of the vehicle using bio-fuel stored on-board.

“Like the Volt, our vehicle will be capable of extended electric-only operation, probably 20 miles of all-electric range,” says the team’s faculty advisor, Darris White, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Embry-Riddle. “Unlike the Volt, which is electrically driven by a single motor, our vehicle can be driven by any combination of three power sources: a diesel engine, front-wheel electric motors, and rear-wheel electric motor.”

The Embry-Riddle team is one of 17 competitively selected university teams from the United States and Canada that are designing cars that will be judged on efficiency, environmental impacts, performance, consumer appeal, safety, quality of workmanship, ride quality, noise, and vibration. They also will present numerous aspects of their EcoCar work, such as mechanical, control, and electric engineering accomplishments, to panels of experts from industry and government.

“The Embry-Riddle vehicle will be built on a Saturn Vue chassis and be able to be driven in three modes: the electric-only mode, series hybrid mode, and parallel hybrid mode,” says Vince Sabatini, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and the team’s leader. “In city driving, the vehicle will use electric and series hybrid modes, each of which has multiple gear ratios to provide smooth operation. On the highway, the vehicle will operate in electric-only mode, parallel hybrid mode, or engine-only mode.”

The vehicle uses an efficient 1.3-liter diesel engine, which can use bio-diesel or traditional diesel fuel. The combined power systems can produce more than 250 horsepower. The control system includes a feature employing GPS, traffic information, and terrain maps, which, in combination with the multi-mode power system, can deliver 40-plus miles per gallon in the Saturn Vue.

EcoCar is a three-year competition that builds on the 19-year history of DOE’s advanced vehicle technology competitions by giving engineering students the chance to design and build advanced vehicles that demonstrate leading-edge automotive technologies. During the program, General Motors will provide production vehicles, vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring, and operational support. The U.S. Department of Energy and its research and development facility, Argonne National Laboratory, will provide competition management, team evaluation, and technical and logistical support. Through this important partnership between government and industry, EcoCar aims to inspire and support the next generation of scientists and engineers to unite around the common goal of sustainable mobility.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering, educating more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs. Doctoral programs in aviation and in engineering physics are pending approval by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for the University to offer programs at the doctoral level. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 campus centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.

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Administrative Offices: 600 South Clyde Morris Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL 32114