Ottawa congratulates the Ecocar challenge winners

The Government of Canada is pleased to congratulate the Canadian teams participating in the 2010 EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge finals in San Diego, California, this past week. The University of Victoria placed fourth overall and won four awards, including the NSF Incoming Advisor Award. The University of Ontario Institute of Technology placed sixth overall and won two awards, including the Lane Change Award. The University of Waterloo placed eighth overall and won the NSF Outstanding Long Term Advisor award.

The competition challenges engineering students from 16 universities across North America to re-engineer a General Motors-donated vehicle to minimize the vehicle’s fuel consumption, petroleum use and emissions, while maintaining its utility, safety and performance.

“The EcoCAR competition offers an excellent showcase for the talent and ingenuity of these students, as well as bringing us closer to our goal of realizing the full economic and environmental potential of these technologies,” said the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Natural Resources Canada.

Natural Resources Canada and Transport Canada jointly contributed a total of $500,000 to the program over three years. Last year, the University of Victoria placed second to the University of Ohio for its design of an Extended Range Electric Vehicle that runs on electric power and E85 ethanol, one of the fuels approved for use in the competition.

The Government of Canada supports other, similar activities as part of its broader commitment to encourage the accelerated development and market-readiness of technology solutions in clean energy and is committed to reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, a target that reflects the importance of aligning with U.S. policy.