AVTC’s History

In early 1986, Al Streb, former deputy assistant secretary for the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), called for a workshop on competitiveness and trade to be held in January 1987. He asked employees of EERE for workshop ideas as well as funding for the most innovative idea.

Phil Patterson, a data analyst for the Vehicle Technologies Program (VTP) at DOE had an idea to start a program that would get university students involved in designing vehicles to run on alternatives to petroleum fuel. Patterson recommended working with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and offer prize money to the school teams that developed the most energy efficient vehicle using an alternative fuel.

EERE chose to fund Patterson’s proposal because it dealt with getting students to work with technologies of interest to the VTP. He enlisted the assistance of Bob Larsen at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to help come up with initial ideas. After discussions with SAE, ANL, and DOE, the first Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) was formed – Methanol Marathon.

Since then, the initiative has grown into 13 AVTCs: Methanol Marathon (1988-1990), Natural Gas Vehicle Challenge (1990-1993), HEV Challenge (1992-1995), Propane Vehicle Challenge (1995-1997), FutureCar Challenge (1995-1999). Ethanol Vehicle Challenge (1997-2000), FutureTruck (1999-2004), Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility (2004-2008), EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge (2008-2011), EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future (2011-2014), EcoCAR 3 (2014-2018) EcoCAR Mobility Challenge (2018-2022), EcoCAR EV Challenge (2022-2026) and the Battery Workforce Challenge (2023-2026).

AVTCs represent a unique coalition of government, industry and academic partners who join forces to execute North America’s premier collegiate automotive engineering competitions. AVTCs provide a challenging, real-world training ground for North America’s future engineers, business and communications students, and automotive leaders and accelerate the development and demonstration of technologies of interest to the DOE and the automotive industry.

Featuring opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines including engineering, business, program management and communications, these competitions challenge students beyond the traditional classroom environment. Students re-engineer a donated production vehicle to improve energy efficiency and to meet the toughest emissions standards, while maintaining the features that make it attractive to the customer: performance, consumer acceptability, safety, and cost. Students incorporate advanced powertrains and alternative fuels as well as their own innovative technologies to maximize their vehicle efficiency and performance results. Students apply their theoretical knowledge to solve not only complex engineering challenges, but to also learn valuable leadership and project management skills, as well as public relations, marketing and business development.

AVTCs also provide significant technical, educational, and promotional benefits to DOE and the nation. The program has evolved over the years to include various forms of electrification, as well as alternative fuels like natural gas, propane, ethanol, biodiesel, and hydrogen. Other student competitions were held in collaboration such as American Tour del Sol, Sunrayce, Clean Air Road Rally, and EV Grand Prix. However, these competitions, often involving high school students, did not officially fall under the AVTC category which concentrated on collegiate-level students.

More than 30,000 students from 111 educational institutions in North America have participated, gaining real-world, hands-on experience tackling the challenges associated with building fuel-efficient vehicles.