Written by: Jack Morgan
The Virginia Tech Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team (HEVT) made major strides during Year 3 of the EcoCAR EV Challenge. This year was all about pushing forward, both with our Cadillac LYRIQ build and the growth of our team as a whole. From logging test miles on the road to connecting with thousands of students at outreach events, HEVT has had a packed and exciting year that brought a lot of success.
One of the first things our team accomplished was becoming the first team at Wave 1 of CARB to complete the MCT and Manual ACC drive cycles. These two full drive cycles, completed over seven hours and 150 miles on the Dynamometer, were a big step in showing that our vehicle systems are reliable and functional. Completing this milestone at CARB was a huge accomplishment because it marked major progress in getting our vehicle ready for the most important part of the challenge—final competition.
Along with that, we achieved functional propulsion systems on our LYRIQ and have now driven the vehicle over 150 miles. These miles weren’t just about distance—they represented countless hours of hard work, innovation, and teamwork that brought our vehicle from concept to reality. We also successfully integrated important energy efficiency features like regenerative braking, AWD capability, and torque splitting between the front and rear wheels. These systems make the vehicle more efficient and help improve performance too.
In addition to technical progress, our team grew by 32% between August 2024 and March 2025. This growth helped us take on more projects, improve our testing efforts, and make sure that every subsystem had the support it needed to reach our goals. A larger team also helped with one of our biggest strengths this year—outreach. HEVT reached over 1,000 K-12 students through events like Roanoke STEAM Day and the CARB + EcoCAR Outreach Event, sharing our passion for advanced vehicle technologies and hands-on learning.
Our communication efforts also stepped up in a big way this year. In March alone, our team had over 21,000 page views on our social media accounts, which helped us spread awareness about our work, share our successes, and connect with the community.
During the Year 3 Competition, our team received the 2nd Place Vehicle Integration Quality – Sponsored by AAM award for our vehicle’s serviceability in terms of mechanical design, and for the data display design, which was seamlessly integrated into our center console as a 3D printed extension to the existing cup holders
None of these accomplishments would have been possible without the support of our sponsors. General Motors provided our vehicle and mentorship, while MathWorks, dSPACE, and Keysight Technologies gave us the tools, software, and equipment we needed to complete our build and testing goals.
Year 3 was a huge success for HEVT, and we’re excited to carry this momentum into Year 4. Our team is focused on making even more progress and getting ready for the final EcoCAR EV Challenge competition. With continued support from our sponsors and teammates, we’re confident that we can keep pushing the limits of vehicle innovation.
