Students work to make a Chevy Malibu eco-friendly

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - The last student left at Purdue from a proposal team didn’t know what the next steps would be after she heard the University would have the chance to change the automobile industry for the better, as told to our partner, the Purdue Exponent.

Haley Moore, a graduate student and team leader, is beginning the second stage in a three-year challenge, the EcoCar 2 competition. Groups of students from 15 universities are asked to transform a Chevrolet Malibu into either a hybrid electric or fuel-cell vehicle.

“I was the only remaining student on the team who wrote the proposal (for the competition),” Moore said.

“(Faculty adviser) Dr. (Vahid) Motevalli got an email and found a couple of us who were working on something else at the time and told us we got in, and we said ‘Wait, really, we got into this?’ Nobody knew what would happen after that. It was like, ‘OK so what do we do now?’”

The goal of the competition is for students to build a greener car without “compromising performance, safety and consumer acceptability.” Purdue’s team, the EcoMakers, chose to convert the car into a hybrid electric vehicle.

“We have the foundation at Purdue for that,” she said. “Our faculty advisers have knowledge about it. This is the first time Purdue has competed in the challenge and we wanted to make sure we know what we are doing to make it easier.”

Vahid Motevalli, department head of mechanical engineering technology and faculty adviser for the competition, said he didn’t have any doubt the students would get into the competition. He said they are focused, excited and ready for the challenge.

“It’s a very tough competition to get in, but our proposal was ranked quite high, one of the highest among the new teams,” Motevalli said. “It is very competitive. More than 70 teams applied.”

This competition has excited Moore at every stage because she is coming closer to changing the world by building vehicles that will save consumers money in the long run.

“Hybrid electric cars use less fuel. With the way the price of fuel is, people don’t always have money to put fuel in cars,” she said. “With this brand new technology, more jobs can be created in the U.S. We will bring jobs back from overseas. There will also be fewer emissions in the environment. We won’t have kids born with asthma because of the emissions.”

Before the hands-on work with the sedan could begin, the teams had to take a year to prepare.

During this first phase, the students worked on the design analysis and simulation, mostly to build the car’s computer.

The second phase has just begun and the students are manufacturing and placing their creations in the car, such as the engines, among others.

“It will be using an E20 fuel, which is 20 percent biodiesel,” he said. “So we will be taking the gasoline engine out and putting in a diesel engine. We will also add an electric motor in the rear .... You will have the capability to do all electric for periods of time and distances, or the capability of just diesel engine if you are out of battery.”

Moore and Motevalli agreed the competition is one of the best ways for students to get real-world experience while still in school. Most students who participate in the challenge are offered jobs their senior year. The students are already up to speed on the newest technological advances in the industry.

“Students are benefiting tremendously because they are getting something that is absolutely, 99 percent like what they would do if they were working in the automotive industry,” he said. “It’s deadline driven, it’s process driven, it’s highly technical.”