Challenge X sponsored by GM and the Department of Energy



By C. Raymond Hidalgo
Writer/Reporter
Tell Us Detroit



In front of General Motors’ (GM) Renaissance center on Monday, members of Michigan Tech University’s (MTU) mechanical engineering team presented a modified 2005 Equinox, their competition entry in GM’s Challenge X competition.

“For the everyday driver, we want to make [the Equinox] to feel no different from what they’re used to.” Team leader Todd Cimermancic said. “We’re working on the aspects of design that the consumer doesn’t see.”

Challenge X is a four-year program started in 2005 and sponsored by GM and the Department of Energy along with various other government and industry leaders where 17 schools around the United States are given an Equinox to competitively meet design goals. Specifically, the aim is to minimize an Equinox’s energy consumption, and emissions while maintaining its overall performance and utility.

“We’ve increased fuel economy by 30%.” Cimermancic said. “It saves hundreds in gallons of gas every year. That’s important with today’s gas prices. Our other goal is to reduce emissions by 30%; we’re still working on that.”

In order to reach some of the competitions requirements, the MTU team has changed its vehicle into a hybrid using regenerative braking.

“With our car you’re cruising on electricity,” Cimermancic said. “When you go from stoplight to stoplight you’re ready to go because under deceleration, [the batteries] regenerate power from it. In a typical car, you lose energy when decelerating.”

In order to reduce engine load, the team has also switched out the vehicle’s powertrain. The stock SUV had a 3.4 liter V6 engine generating 185 horsepower. It now has a 2.0 liter 4-cylinder, 100 HP engine with an additional 55 kilowatts coming from the electric rear wheels.

“The vehicles braking time is the same if not better and its 0-60 MPH time is the same as well,” Cimermancic said.

Other changes include increased leg room, a lighter rear seat, and less cargo capacity due to the electric battery pack used to power the rear wheels.

Although the team’s progress on the Equinox has come a long way since 2005, it doesn’t come easy for the team.



““You want to say it’s done but of course we’ve had failures in the past,” Cimermancic said. “It’s not like GM where they have 20 different calibrations. We can’t change more than one variable at a time. It’s like a paper; you can’t change parts of it simply because you don’t like them.”

Sometimes realization of an error comes at a bad time for the team as well.
“We suddenly stopped in the middle of a left turn lane on Dequindre in Rochester Hills,” Cimermancic said. “There was a wire shortage in the exhaust. The wire shouldn’t have even been there. One of the guys from the GM Tech center happened to see us with our hood up and our dashboard out and said ‘I figured you guys could use some help’ and sent us on our way.”

GM itself, aside creating the event has made sure that MTU is taken care of.
“GM has given us more than we can ask for; [we go to] Boston, Canada, California and they provide sponsors, battery packs, and tires among other things. The opportunity is incredible,” Cimermansic said.

With its sponsors’ support, the MTU team is able to use the most cutting edge materials and learn as a group at the same time.

“If you can’t work as a team, nothing can be done. There are 15 of us and none of us have had experience building up vehicles before,” Cimermancic said. “Nobody knows everything but we utilize the skills that each of us have. You don’t learn this at school. Even though it takes up our lives, we can’t get away from it. You take a vehicle and make it have an impact in the real world.”

Cimermancic is fond of the project, and he is not looking forward to it ending. The finale for the competition is in Washington D.C. in May.

“For the couple of us who have been around since the start, and even for those who have only been around for a couple years, I think we’ll all be disappointed,” Cimermancic said. “We put in 20-30 hours a week into this project and suddenly it will be over.
There’s nothing to replace that.”