• Goals & Accomplishments
• Partnerships
  • National Clean Fleets Partnership
  • National Parks Initiative
  • Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program
  • EcoCAR Challenge
  • AAA Greenlight Partnership
  • Natural Gas Transit & School Bus Users Group
  • Natural Gas Vehicle Technology Forum
• Hall of Fame
• Contacts

EcoCAR Challenge

EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge is a competition among student teams at universities across North America to reduce the environmental impact of vehicles by reducing fuel consumption, petroleum use, and emissions while maintaining their utility, safety, and performance. The U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors, Argonne National Laboratory, and the Clean Cities program are working together to support the EcoCAR Challenge.

Each university team is responsible for outreach activities, such as educational, marketing, and media relations efforts. Clean Cities helps support EcoCAR graduate students who act as outreach coordinators to support each team's expansion of outreach and marketing efforts. Outreach coordinators are tasked with building public awareness of advanced vehicle technologies with particular emphasis on educating the public about electric, hybrid electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Clean Cities and EcoCAR share a common mission: to reduce petroleum consumption in the transportation sector. Clean Cities coalitions are taking an active role in supporting the efforts of their local teams. Outreach coordinators may also work as interns within the coalition structure.

2011 Competition

Virginia Tech claimed top team honors for 2011. Ohio State University took second place, and the University of Waterloo took third place.

Learn about the year-three EcoCAR Challenge teams in this video from MotorWeek.

2010 Competition

Mississippi State University won top honors in the second year of the competition. Learn more about the results in the EcoCAR Challenge press release.

More Information

To learn more, visit EcoCAR Challenge. For questions about the EcoCAR program, contact Kimberly DeClark, the EcoCAR national outreach coordinator, or call 202-441-0096.