Green Means Go: FutureTruck Competition Brings Fuel Efficiency to Trucks/SUVs
by Lee Goldberg

Greetings from Austin, Texas, the self-proclaimed "live music capital of the world," and what appears to be the highest per-capita concentration of tattoo parlors in any developed nation. And while the tattoos, blues, and booze that characterize Austin's 6th Street music district would be the destination of choice for most students: But a group of electrical and mechanical engineering majors seem just as excited to sit in a darkened conference room, boning up on hybrid vehicle technology. They have come to National Instruments' North Austin campus from 15 North American universities to attend one of several technical briefings they get as participants in the FutureTruck 2003 competition.

Conceived and managed by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DoE) Argonne National Labs, the FutureTruck event is a bold initiative that challenges 15 university teams to re-engineer a conventional mid-sized truck or SUV into a lower emissions vehicle (LEV) with at least 25% better fuel economy. Contestants in the current two-year competition cycle have all been given identical 2002 Ford Explorers from Ford Motor Corp. as their baseline vehicle. They can modify their truck using virtually any technology, fuel, or construction technique, but must do their best to maintain as much as possible of the original performance, utility, safety, and affordability that the original truck delivered.

Last year, the teams ran their vehicles in the first of two performance "bake-offs" that factor in fuel efficiency, emissions, acceleration, handling, consumer acceptance, and off-road performance to determine the overall winner. Now a bit more than halfway through the two-year challenge, they are busy further modifying and refining their entries for the final competition this summer.

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