EcoCAR
North America's Premier Collegiate Automotive Engineering Competition
Mississippi State undergraduate and graduate students are looking forward to participating in the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge – General Motors Track beginning in the fall of 2026 to advance electric vehicle technology, automation, and mobility through real-world, hands-on experience.
The previous competition, the EcoCAR EV Challenge focused on reengineering a Cadillac LYRIQ to improve efficiency, autonomy, and equitable mobility while maintaining strong performance.
The Mississippi State University EcoCAR team is a student-led organization that develops future leaders in engineering and business — who can design, build and market fuel-efficient and eco-friendly vehicles.
Continually selected as one of 16 North American universities to compete in the EcoCAR competition, MSU teams placed first overall in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012, and maintain high ranks within presentation and event categories.
In the Innovation Challenge, MSU is part of the GM track. In this track, the team will modify the rear propulsion system of a Blazer SS Police Edition SUV. In addition, the team will implement autonomous features such as intersection navigation, lane centering, and cooperative adaptive cruise control. There is also a product innovation track, and MSU will compete with GM and Stellantis teams. In that track, teams will analyze markets and prepare and pitch solutions, with the potential to spin off a company.
Through building the car of tomorrow, we bridge the gap between academia and industry today
The EcoCAR 2 competition, themed ‘Plugging into the Future,’ tasked teams with converting a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that reduced fuel use and emissions while maintaining performance.
With team members hailing from different academic disciplines, the competition has a university-wide reach, uniting students for the common goal of engineering a successful EcoCAR.
Although strongly focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, team responsibilities include skillsets focused on project management, communication, innovation, controls, and simulation, among others, allowing any Mississippi State student to find their place working with EcoCAR.
If you are interested in learning more about EcoCAR, please contact ecocar@cavs.msstate.edu.
There are also several positions that are open this fall for both
graduate and undergraduate positions for the next 4 years, so
please click on the link(s) that you may be interested in for more information and to apply!
The MSU EcoCAR team is currently recruiting students for the following positions:
- AI / Engineering Manager Lead: Oversees propulsion, autonomy, and system-safety requirements while leading the team's AI/ML development and deployment activities.
- Connected and Automated Vehicles Lead: Leads development and integration of sensing, V2X, perception, and longitudinal and lateral automated-driving systems.
- Innovation Manager: Evaluates customer needs, market opportunities, and commercialization pathways for technologies developed by the EcoCAR team.
- Integration Lead: Directs the physical integration, testing, and calibration of propulsion, autonomous, electrical, and auxiliary vehicle systems.
- Marketing and Communications Lead: Manages team branding, social media, outreach, events, and the communications subteam.
- Propulsion Controls and Modeling Lead: Leads propulsion architecture, modeling, control-software development, requirements, calibration, and validation.
- Project Manager: Coordinates schedules, deliverables, risks, resources, recruitment, and overall execution across the multidisciplinary team.
- Vehicle Systems Engineering Lead: Supports controls, vehicle architecture, electrical integration, and autonomous-system validation as the project progresses.
Key sponsors supporting the EcoCAR EV Challenge include the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors, Stellantis, and MathWorks.
The team members representing MSU in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge converted a Saturn Vue into an extended-range electric vehicle focused on energy efficiency and emissions reduction.
