For more than 15 years, General Motors (GM) has joined the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to sponsor several successful student engineering competition programs. Most recently, GM, DOE and MathWorks have teamed up as headline sponsors EcoCAR EV Challenge, the latest Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) program. The four-year competition, modeled after the GM global vehicle development process, brings students into the real-world of vehicle development and better prepares them to make a faster contribution to the engineering profession and the automotive industry. Each participating university team is re-engineering a vehicle donated by GM, with three basic goals: reduce energy consumption, decrease emissions, and maintain the performance and utility features of the stock vehicle. GM donates vehicles to each of the university teams at the end of the first year of the competition. GM provides highly controlled access to its intellectual property as well as engineering staff support and mentoring — including a program manager, team mentors, and event judges—and communications support for the competition series. General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM, TSX: GMM) and its partners produce vehicles in 30 countries, and the company has leadership positions in the world’s largest and fastest-growing automotive markets. GM’s brands include Chevrolet and Cadillac, as well as Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden, Isuzu, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety, security and information services, can be found at www.gm.com
