Design of the Future

L.A. Times Archives

June 2, 1996 12 AM PT

Student engineers at Cal State Northridge are putting their design abilities to the test in the Future Car Challenge, a two-year contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Council for Automotive Research and the Big Three auto makers--General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. Students at a dozen universities throughout North America are trying to design a car acceptable to consumers that gets three times the gas mileage of current cars. The contest is the student version of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, a national research project involving the private and public sector aimed at designing more fuel-efficient cars.

CSUN students chose to turn their donated Chevrolet Lumina into a hybrid--powered by both a gasoline-burning motorcycle engine and an electric motor. They will get a gauge on their progress when the car is run through a battery of tests June 17-24 in Detroit. The students will have another year to continue working on their projects before final evaluation in June 1997.

The challenge:

The goal of the Future Car Challenge is to design a car that gets 80 mpg.

Other requirements:

250-mile range

0 to 60 mph in less than 16 seconds

Five-passenger seating

Enough trunk room for a small suitcase

Consumer acceptance

Must use technologies with mass production potential by 2004

The execution:

The biggest modification to the car involves replacing its V-6, 3.3-liter engine with a 1.1-liter BMW motorcycle engine and adding an electric motor designed by CSUN students. The gas engine will operate the car on city streets, while the electric motor will be used on the highway. The efficiency gained by the electric motor versus an internal combustion engine should allow the car to reach its 80 mpg goal, despite the fact that it will be weighted down by 575 pounds of batteries in the trunk. “It all comes down to the efficiency of the power,” said Shawn White, a graduate engineering student directing the project. A customized dashboard will display the level of charge in the engine and miles per gallon of both engines. Two solar panels will provide power to a 12-volt engine.

Competition points:

ENERGY ECONOMY

City: 150

Highway: 100

Emissions: 150

Endurance: 100

Acceleration: 100

Handling: 50

CONSUMER ACCEPTABILITY

Static (in showroom): 50

Dynamic (test drive): 100

DESIGN