The contest, sponsored by the Department of Energy and Ford, involves each university team re-engineering a Ford Explorer SUV to achieve lower emissions and higher fuel economy—while retaining the vehicle's utility, affordability and customer appeal.
The students' FutureTruck vehicles will be judged at a series of events designed to evaluate technical performance and static design.
To encourage teams to develop technologies that reduce “total-cycle greenhouse gas emissions,” FutureTruck includes an event that measures "upstream fuel-cycle emissions," caused during the production and delivery of a fuel, and dynamometer emissions measurements.
At the contest’s close, all the student teams will travel to Los Angeles for a vehicle display and awards ceremony.
