BYU students’ hybrid race car quietly roars to success - BYU News Skip to main content
Intellect

BYU students’ hybrid race car quietly roars to success

BYU engineering students finished in fourth place when they raced the gas-electric hybrid race car they built from scratch against teams from colleges around the world.

The teams competed across several categories - the Cougars took second place in presentation and electric acceleration.

Their blue-and-white car goes from zero to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds while it gets 80 miles per gallon. The team spent more than 8,000 hours working on the project as part of their Capstone experience, a senior course in mechanical engineering.

Grades are turned in already, but their crowning moment came as part of the Formula Hybrid competition at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway against teams from Yale, Dartmouth, India, Russia, and 35 other teams.

It was BYU's first time racing a gas-electric hybrid, and they were competing against teams with several years' experience.

Here are some of the features of the team’s “Lithium Lighting”:

  • Its secret weapons are 120 candy-bar sized lithium batteries. Each one provides about the same power as a standard battery, but at one-fifth the weight.
  • A custom carbon fiber shell helps keep the car at a trim 450 pounds, about half the weight of the competition’s average entrant last year. Because the competition is geared more toward agility than top-end speed, that helps a lot.
  • The students believe they are the only team that has a system in which the gas engine and the batteries both feed the generator, rather than both turning the wheels. Setting this up in a series, rather than parallel, should give the team a power advantage. But it was really hard to do.
  • During a recent test drive, the car alternately sounded stealthy in electric-only mode and rip-roaring in gas mode.

“From the outside, it looks like just a cool car,” said faculty coach Robert Todd, professor of mechanical engineering. “But the engineering behind it is what is really special.”

Peter Ransom is the student team leader. Other members are:Ben Richards, Brandon Davies, Greg Rasmussen, Jeremy Wade, Keith Allen, Marc Simonsen, Matt Robinson, Michael Call, Sean Cornwell, Thomas Tolman, Tyler Davis and Victor Chiang.

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

Forum: Why institutions matter

February 25, 2025
“The answer comes down to each of us — even to you, as students here in this university,” expressed Yuval Levin in his forum address at the BYU Marriott Center.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Committed to community: BYU students unite with Food & Care Coalition to build hydroponics greenhouse

February 25, 2025
Thanks to a group of BYU students and their professor, this year marks a new era for the Food & Care Coalition’s fresh produce supply. Professor Matt Arrington and students recently designed and built a hydroponics greenhouse to provide nutritious produce during the cold months.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

BYU’s Marriott School earns high new global ranks for MBA program

February 18, 2025
The BYU Marriott School of Business MBA program comes in at No. 2 in the world for “Overall Satisfaction” according to newly released global MBA rankings from The Financial Times.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=