2007 Challenge-X: And the winner is....

... Mississippi State University. The team from Mississippi built a through-the-road parallel hybrid system into an Equinox. The internal combustion engine was a 1.9L Opel turbocharged and direct injected diesel engine driving the front wheels through an automatic transmission and fueled by B20 biodiesel. The MSU vehicle managed a forty-eight percent increase in fuel economy compared to a stock Equinox.

Second place went to the team from University of Wisconsin-Madison that also built a through-the-road diesel parallel hybrid with the same Opel engine. Third place went to Virginia Tech and their 2.3L E85 parallel hybrid. We'll have more details tomorrow along with some driving impressions of some of the vehicles.