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Tennessee Students Engineer Eco-Vehicle That Drives for Pennies
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Most commuters in urban areas drive to work a distance of less than 15 miles, one-way. Most of these are single passengers in vehicles designed to carry up to 5 passengers. If a vehicle was available that was sufficiently comfortable but used much less energy and if people would adopt such a vehicle, the environmental impact of commuters could be significantly reduced. A team of engineering students from the University of Tennessee started with a commercially available kit for a three-wheeled electric car, the BugE (http://www.bugev.net/). They modified the frame and components, test drove the vehicle to simulate use as a commuting vehicle for 2 weeks, and conducted an analysis to compare this vehicle to other vehicles in terms of environmental and health impacts as well as operating and capital costs. The full analysis can be found in a copy of the final project report to the EPA, which is posted at http://web.utk.edu/~pdf/h2vbev/report.pdf.
The report includes a proposal for extending the work for an additional two years.
In the original proposed project, the students were going to build a hydrogen fuel cell version of the car to test as well. However, delivery problems for the fuel cell and a very tight project timeline made it impossible to build both cars before the students would need to enter their project in the EPA’s P3 competition (http://www.epa.gov/P3/). Because of the similarities between the battery electric system and fuel cell system and the data gathered during road testing, it was simple to design the vehicle and to include the hydrogen fuel cell version of the vehicle in the sustainability analysis. Perhaps a future team will build the fuel cell version to validate the design and performance analysis.
The tested vehicle uses very little energy and could easily be charged from either a home-installed solar panel or by purchasing “green power” from the local utility.
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On July 19th, 2011 at 4:30 pm Kerri Martin Said:
This looks like an amazing project for engineering students to have participated in! It’s good to know students are looking for sustainable solutions to real-world problems.
On July 19th, 2011 at 6:02 pm Joseph Said:
Those Bug E’s are so cool! That is what I would use, too, for the project.
On July 19th, 2011 at 8:04 pm S. Henson Said:
This looks like a very suitable vehicle for commute to and from work. I would like to add these Students deserve lots of recognition and phrase. The efforts to build a form of transportation with clean, environmental safe and extremely low cost without the use of foreign oil is astronomical. THESE STUDENTS ARE THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY.
On July 19th, 2011 at 9:17 pm Amanda Frymier Said:
It’s a good feeling to know that our future is in the hands of students like these!
On July 19th, 2011 at 11:03 pm Karl L. Hughes Said:
Great work so far! This seems like something that could really take off.
On July 20th, 2011 at 12:49 am M Vessely Said:
Great job students! And the BugE is very cute and George Jetson like. Can’t wait to see the next study and prototype. Love to see research being done for alternative energy sources and reduced cost.
On July 20th, 2011 at 7:10 am Christa Said:
Great Job. Want to see more!!!
On July 20th, 2011 at 11:31 pm Lisa Harrell Said:
The more students become advocates of environmentally responsible solutions, the sooner we can move away from fossil fuel dependence. Great project!
On July 21st, 2011 at 1:01 pm Gordon Hoffman Said:
The BugE is a great starter vehicle. I would like to not have to crawl into a vehicle. I would like to be able to easily cart some groceries. I would like to are how it does on hills and side sloping ground. I like how the Drymer leans in the turns and stays upright on the slopes. I wish I was working with those students – what a great project. Thanx
On July 21st, 2011 at 1:01 pm Jim stACk Said:
Tenn. is also where the worlds first commercialy available 100% electric car is being mass produced. The Nissan LEAF in Symrna TENN. This area is really getting plugged in.
Our GRID has excess electric power Off Peak and plugging in is easy and available EVerywhere. It’s about $1 of electricity vs 1-2 gallons of gas. I chose to plug into American power.
On July 24th, 2011 at 11:35 am Don Said:
This is like most eco vehicles. Would they be safe driving among regular sized cars? If they have a special lane on the road or some way to protect them from larger vehicles, they might work. I would like to try one. But not sure I would feel safe.
On July 25th, 2011 at 11:41 am Paul Said:
Don,
Good comments. Energy efficiency in stop-and-go driving is, to a large extent, a function of the weight of the vehicle. It would be ideal if road systems were designed for safety of light vehicles, but it is unlikely to happen in the short term. We are in a bit of a vehicle cold war; that is, to make me feel safe, I need a bigger car. And then you need a bigger car. And so on. Perhaps as cities rebuild infrastructure and as fuel costs get higher, there will be changes to make urban areas more friendly to light electric vehicles. For the present, cities can’t afford to build special lanes for every new type of vehicle; we have to share the infrastructure we have.
The students working on this project would say this vehicle is not for everyone. However, if you live on a route, like I do, where feel you can safely operate this vehicle, it is a fantastic way to get to work. Operating a motor vehicle is, to some extent, an inherently unsafe practice for everyone.
I’ve driven the vehicle in traffic and I don’t feel unsafe, but then again, I oten ride a bike to work, which many people feel is extremely dangerous. There are levels of safety. On the news this AM, there was a followup on a story about a car load of kids killed in a traffic incident on an interstate while in a minivan.
“Safe” is not an either/or proposition. There are degrees of safety. Most people have a vague notion that a heavier car is safer, but there is a limit to the extent people will act on this information; that is, no one is driving an Army tank to work. And some smaller vehicles are safer than larger ones. Vehicle choice is a complex interaction of cost, safely, style, capacity, and other factors.
In the end, safety is a function of a lot of things; the car you drive, the person behind the wheel, the speed of the vehicles, road conditions, etc. I would say, having driven the vehicle, that it does not feel unsafe to me. But it might to you.
On July 25th, 2011 at 3:56 pm Paul Said:
Gordon,
It is very “hilly” here in Knoxville where we are. Some elements on the car were re-designed so that it would do well on very steep roads. A new rear sprocket was machined, for example. In its current configuration, it is extremely good climbing hills. The body does not “lean” so that when you corner, it corners flat. A leaning body would be an improvement. There are some vehicles designed that way, but they are heavier and considerably more expensive. The study the students wanted to do was to look at a low impact, low cost alternative to a conventional vehicle. This is about as low cost as you can go and have a full frontal cowling on a road-worthy vehicle.
On August 3rd, 2011 at 7:42 pm Teddy Ansink Said:
Nice video Dr. Frymier. It was a great project to be a part of. I hope all is going well in Knoxville. I just got home from a business trip to Raleigh, NC and was directed to this page. It looks as though the hybrid is coming along. Congrats on all of the recognition, it’s well deserved!