GM taps into college student talents for green ideas

The GM Desert Proving Ground in Mesa, Arizona, is welcoming 17 university teams from across North America as part of the three-year Challenge X competition, sponsored by GM and the U.S. Department of Energy. GM sees the competition as an ideal pool from which to recruit the future hybrid vehicle engineers. Each of the 17 teams was given a Chevrolet Equinox in the second year of the competition, after all the design was completed in the first year. The Equinox cars were all modified, in order to improve fuel economy and emissions, but retain as much of the original performance as possible. All the vehicles incorporate a form of hybrid technologies, and the fuels used include diesel, hydrogen, E85, and one exotic blend of E85 and hydrogen.
[Source: EastValley Tribune]