The 17 Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicles that pulled up to the US Department of Energy headquarters on 21 May were identically equipped when they came off the assembly line in 2005. Four years later all resemblance ended at the exterior. In the intervening time, teams of students from 17 universities had torn the guts out of their donated crossover SUVs—those built on a car frame—and installed radically new drive systems of their own design. The goal of the makeover contest, sponsored by DOE, General Motors Corp, and others, was to improve the fuel economy and reduce the tailpipe emissions of the SUVs without sacrificing vehicle safety or performance.

For GM and other US automakers, the Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility competition got a new generation of engineers and scientists to work on “sustainable and innovative solutions” to reducing the country’s dependence on oil, GM vice president for environment...

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