The EcoCAR team from The Ohio State University earned top honors at the 2009 finals of the Year One competition which recently took place in Toronto, Canada.

The Ohio State University took first place out of the 17 EcoCAR university teams for their design of an Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV). The winning team’s EREV provides a practical solution that will increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. The Ohio State’s design was powered by a 1.8 liter engine and fueled by E85 ethanol.

In addition to taking First Place Overall, The Ohio State team also took top honors in the following judged categories: Best Written Design Report, Best Overall Business Program, Best Trade Show Display and Presentation, Controls Event Presentation, HIL Evaluation Event, Best Technical Success Story and Outstanding Outreach.

The second place vehicle design, engineered by students at the University of Victoria is also an EREV that runs on E85 ethanol. Mississippi State University was awarded third place for its EREV, B20 biodiesel.

During the past year, participating teams have logged countless hours working in their Green Garages to design the next generation of green vehicle technologies. For this first year of competition, students were tasked with creating innovative concepts for their vehicle design and given the opportunity to use advanced software and computer modeling tools which allowed for testing and refinement under the simulation of real-world conditions.

At a finale press conference where The Ohio State was announced the winner, each team received keys to a 2009 Saturn VUE. In year two of the competition, teams will incorporate their unique powertrains into the VUE and in the final competition year, teams will refine their vehicles to near-showroom quality.