About the Green Garage

Apple got its start in a Los Altos garage where Jobs and Wozniak tinkered with their new prototype. Stanford University classmates Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard built HP’s first product in a Palo Alto garage in 1939. And, more recently, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin forever changed the Internet in a Menlo Park garage.

The garage has become an icon of innovation, emblematic of a spirit of invention that gives us hope that together we can overcome any challenge. It’s in that spirit that we introduce the Green Garage and through its door rollout the EcoCAR 2: Plugging in to the Future, an unprecedented public/private partnership to foster the training of the next generation of engineers who are developing clean vehicle technology solutions. Sixteen teams, 16 garages and generous sponsors are hoping that once again the power to change the world will come out of a garage, the Green Garage.

So what good can come of this Green Garage? Why the EcoCAR 2 competition? Simply put, the 15 EcoCAR 2 teams are quintessential garage innovators with a modicum of open source thrown in. They aren’t tethered to a single philosophy or agenda – just a Chevrolet Malibu, and they’re free to experiment with a mix of complementary and conflicting solutions.

The opportunity to bring something meaningful out of the garage is exciting for General Motors, the U.S. Department of Energy and all the sponsors. But the EcoCAR 2 competition isn’t just about novelty approaches that are quickly forgotten; it’s about rigorously testing new vehicle systems that show promise of minimizing fuel consumption and emissions.

And boundaries will be pushed. The teams aren’t focused on one technology or fuel, but instead are testing multiple technologies in tandem, such as combining hydrogen fuel cells with lithium ion batteries. It is a race to see which of the 16 EcoCAR 2 teams’ vehicle designs will perform best in each phase of the competition. It is also a collective race to find alternative choices to reliance to oil to supply the world’s automotive energy requirements. It is about 16 teams in 16 garages across North America that will make a difference for generations to come.

During the three-year program, General Motors will provide production vehicles, vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring and operational support. The U.S. Department of Energy and its research and development facility, Argonne National Laboratory, will provide competition management, team evaluation and technical and logistical support. And a mix of other sponsors will lend their expertise and resources to assist this next generation of scientists and engineers, our future.