21st Century Automotive Challenge
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Updated: May 21, 2010
UNIVERISTY PARK, CENTRE COUNTY - 13 cars are on Penn State campus to compete in the 21st Century Automotive Challenge. Those vehicles will be judged on the best fuel efficiency and which vehicle has the lowest carbon impact.
How will the judges determine the winner? On Saturday, they will put the cars through a simulation of a day full or errands and running around, during that time judges will test each car’s stamina.
Cars are competing from as far away as Maine, and there is also a contestant from right here in Happy Valley.
More than the contest, challengers get to talk green automotive technology with each other; comparing cost, fuel savings, even design strategies.
That is something they had not been able to do until Penn State stepped up to the plate.
“This is the legacy of an electric vehicle competition that was called the tour de sol which ended in 2006, and a lot of these people are veterans of that competition, and we're working to actually revive that name,” Joel Anstrom from Penn State’s Larson Transportation Institute said.
Penn State's hoping to grow the competition, 13 cars this year. Next year they would like as many as 25 vehicles in the 21st Century Automotive Challenge.
The public is welcome to come out to PSU’s Larson Transportation Institute from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday to see the cars in action.
