Virginia Clean Cities Visits Virginia Tech

As an EcoCAR 2 team, we do a lot of community events, influencer outreach and youth sustainability education. We would never be able to do this without the help from platinum-level sponsor Virginia Clean Cities coalition. This past Friday, Nov. 15, we met with a few representatives from VCC and set gears in motion for Year 3.

VCC executive director Alleyn Harned and VCC intern Brandon Walraven came down from their Harrisonburg, Va. office to visit our own Virginia Tech Ware Lab. We gave them a quick tour of the lab and a hands-on look at the work we’ve been doing with Mary the Malibu.

"It was great to get to see the progress you [HEVT] have made with your vehicle so far in Year 3," Alleyn said. "I'm glad we got a chance to sit down and chat about our partnership and the great vehicle you’re developing. We're going to do a lot of great things together this year."

VCC propane vehicle on the Drillfield, April 2013

During a dangerously delicious lunch meeting, we discussed plans to partner on a few alternative vehicle events in Roanoke this spring. I’m sure you’re dying to know what kind of events, huh? All we’ll give away is that you might find them “electrifying.” (Get it?)

The Clean Cities program is sponsored by the Department of Energy to help reduce dependence on imported petroleum products by promoting alternative fuel use in the transportation sector. They are instrumental in cultivating an advanced transportation community in which people learn about a wide range of options and technologies.

Be on the lookout for some great collaborative efforts with VCC to come in spring of 2014. Oh, and stay tuned for those “electrifying” events!

Build Update 11.8.13

In Year 1, we designed an ambitious architecture that uses a P2, or position two, generator motor that sits between the engine and the transmission. Working alongside our local sponsor Kollmorgen Corporation, we designed and manufactured this custom generator motor. This, of course, did not come without any complications...

For the past two weeks, we have used Kollmorgen's labs to test the custom generator motor that they built for us. We had originally planned to use this time to iron out control details of the Rinehart inverter that we are pairing with the custom generator. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are now making sure to test our P2 as much as possible while we have access to Kollmorgen's labs.

Team leader, Eli White, receiving our new P2 generator motor.

We are also validating the operational limits of the generator motor before implementing it into our vehicle. We will be able to take what we've learned while testing the P2 and use it in finalizing the control code and generating electric power to the vehicle. The data collected will be used to validate and improve the vehicle model that we designed in Year 1.

We have really enjoyed the testing time and have learned so much about the operation of our generator and inverter. A big thanks to Kollmorgen for all of their help with testing and thanks to Rinehart for all their help in tuning the inverter to work with our generator!

With Kollmorgen and Rinehart's help, we are making great strides in implementing all of our vehicle's hybrid components and have a bright outlook for Year 3 competition. Be sure to follow along with our process throughout the rest of Year 3 and leave us encouragement and suggestions in the comments below!