Purdue EcoCAR 2 team announces architecture

The 15 teams in the EcoCAR 2 competition have unveiled their vehicle designs. Purdue is one of four teams that will use a Parallel through the Road (PTTR) architecture. Purdue’s team brings together students from the colleges of Technology and Engineering to convert a General Motors-donated 2012 Chevrolet Malibu into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

PTTR uses an on-board battery to reduce fuel use. The battery can be recharged using a standard wall outlet. Once the plug-in range of the battery is depleted the vehicle can still operate as a regular hybrid. Purdue will use B20 fuel – a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel — to extend the range of the vehicle.

• Follow the Purdue EcoCAR 2 team on Facebook
• View the Purdue team’s plans for their car
• See the video announcement and description of the possible architectures

The competition is nearing completion of its first year. The teams will receive their cars this summer to begin the work of converting the vehicles.

The three-year EcoCAR 2 competition, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Argonne National Laboratory and General Motors and 20 other government and industry leaders, gives students the opportunity to gain real world eco-friendly automotive engineering experience. EcoCAR teams must balance the challenge of increasing the vehicle’s energy efficiency and reducing the vehicle’s greenhouse gas emissions and petroleum consumption with maintaining the performance, safety and overall consumer acceptability of the original Malibu.