Visteon Promotes Engineering Excellence Through FutureTruck Competition

DEARBORN, Mich., May 18, 2004 -- Visteon Corporation is proud to be a major sponsor of FutureTruck 2004, a program that challenges teams of engineering students from 15 top North American universities to re-engineer 2002 Ford Explorers to reduce emissions and achieve at least a 25 percent improvement in fuel economy.

Managed by the Argonne National Laboratory's Center for Transportation Research and led by Ford Motor Co. and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, FutureTruck helps develop hundreds of highly skilled engineers. The competition builds the students' awareness of fuel-saving technologies and prepares them to lead the auto industry in the 21st Century.

The teams must achieve the fuel-economy and emission goals without sacrificing the performance, utility, safety and affordability of the sport- utility vehicles they are modifying. The competing students are employing a variety of technologies, including advanced propulsion systems, lightweight materials, hybrid-electric designs and such alternative fuels as hydrogen, ethanol and biodiesel.

After months of work, teams will take their vehicles to Ford's Michigan Proving Ground in Romeo, Michigan, on June 15 and 16 for a comprehensive safety evaluation, and a battery of static and dynamic testing.

An overall winner will be selected based on those tests. The overall winner will be named at an awards dinner on the evening of June 16. In addition, Visteon will give its own award to the team whose vehicle represents the most innovative use of electronics.

  The participating universities are:
  -- California Polytechnic State University
  -- Cornell University
  -- Georgia Institute of Technology
  -- Michigan Technological University
  -- The Ohio State University
  -- Penn State University
  -- Texas Tech University
  -- University of Alberta
  -- University of California - Davis
  -- University of Idaho
  -- University of Maryland
  -- University of Tennessee
  -- University of Wisconsin
  -- Virginia Tech
  -- West Virginia University