The first week of the March Emissions Testing Event (ETE) has officially come to a close! All six teams from the first wave of EcoCAR 2 teams successfully passed safety and technical inspections and completed either 4-wheel drive or 2-wheel drive dynamometer testing at the Transportation Research Center.
“When teams arrived, only one vehicle was able to drive off of the shipping truck,” said Patrick Walsh, Advanced Vehicle Testing and Controls Engineer at Argonne National Laboratory. “When all of the teams left, all six were able to drive on to the truck. That’s a pretty big accomplishment in only five days.”
Now it is up to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, University of Waterloo, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Purdue University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Penn State University to follow similar suit.
“ETE was a pretty tremendous learning opportunity for these teams – even if their vehicles aren’t fully functional while on the dyno,” said AVTC Vehicle Systems Engineer Jesse Alley. “This testing opportunity has allowed them to their and troubleshoot their vehicles in a safe and controlled environment. Utilizing this opportunity, teams were able to develop and refine their control strategies to improve energy efficiency, driveability, and reliability of the vehicles.”
The second week of the March ETE started on Friday, March 14 and will wrap up in East Liberty, Ohio by Wednesday afternoon.
Stay tuned on all of the EcoCAR 2 social media channels for progress on the second group of students, and check back next week as the remaining teams head to Argonne National Laboratory for their chance at dyno testing at the Advanced Powertrain Research Facility.
