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'Supermileage' College Teams Top 1,000 Miles per Gallon at Eaton's Proving Grounds in Marshall, Michigan


eaton competition
A team from Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada, was the overall winner of this year's Supermileage competition. The team, which received a total score of 1,533 (1,145 mpg plus its Design Report score of 388), will be recognized at the SAE 2014 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress held Oct 7-9 in Rosemont, Illinois

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MARSHALL, MI--June 11, 2014: --Power management company Eaton today announced that five college teams achieved more than 1,000 miles per gallon in specially designed vehicles during the SAE SupermileageŽ event held June 5-6 at Eaton’s Proving Grounds in Marshall, Michigan. This is the 35th year for the competition, which challenges teams to build a one-person, fuel efficient vehicle based around a one-cylinder, four-cycle engine.

“It is truly amazing what these student teams were able to accomplish”

“It is truly amazing what these student teams were able to accomplish,” said Tom Stover, chief technology officer for Eaton’s Vehicle Group in Galesburg, Michigan. “The Supermileage competition helps them develop practical engineering, team building and leadership skills that they can use to succeed in their careers, including making tomorrow’s cars and trucks more fuel efficient.”

A team from Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, was the overall winner of this year’s Supermileage competition. The team, which received a total score of 1,533 (1,145 mpg plus its Design Report score of 388), won $1,500 and will be recognized at the SAE 2014 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress held Oct 7-9 in Rosemont, Illinois.

Another Quebec school, École De Technologie Superieur, finished second with a score of 1,517 (1,134 mpg plus 383 points for its Design Report), followed closely by Brigham Young University’s tally of 1,514, which included the best overall fuel economy run of 1,211 mpg – marking the second straight year Brigham Young has had the most fuel efficient vehicle in the competition. These schools received $1,200 and $900, respectively.

Rounding out the top five were teams from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst with 1,485 (1,142 mpg plus 343 Design Report points) and Penn State University – Behrend College with 1,410 (1,020 mpg plus 390 Design Report points).

A team from the University of California – Los Angeles won the Design Report portion of the competition with a score of 408. The University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign team won the Best Newcomer Award. The City College of New York was chosen by the event organizing committee to have the Best Design Execution; Ryerson University received the Best Demonstrated Overall Team Attitude award; and Concordia University won the 35th Anniversary Endurance Award (minimum of five successful fuel economy runs).

Hosted by Eaton since its inception in 1980, the Supermileage event is designed to generate public awareness of high-mileage fuel economy and to promote automotive engineering as a career choice for students. Participants are encouraged to use advanced materials and technologies, as well as their design creativity and imaginations, to get the most out of their vehicles over the 9.6-mile course – six times around Eaton’s 1.6-mile test track.

The winning team at the first Supermileage competition in 1980 achieved 558 mpg. Teams from 19 colleges competed in this year’s Supermileage event, including five teams from Canada and one from Venezuela. Penn State won the 2013 Supermileage competition.

SAE International is a global association with more than 138,000 member engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial vehicle industries. Eaton’s partnership with SAE in Supermileage stems from its broad portfolio of technologies designed to improve the efficiency of specific systems and a vehicle’s overall fuel economy.

Eaton is a power management company with 2013 sales of $22.0 billion. Eaton provides energy-efficient solutions that help our customers effectively manage electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power more efficiently, safely and sustainably. Eaton has approximately 102,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 175 countries.