- Video shows the University of Michigan team competing in the Formula SAE Competition at Michigan International Speedway.
- 75 teams are competing in the four day event.
- Each team is to build their own EV, and is tested in categories such as acceleration and endurance.
"It's an industry that's grown a lot in the past couple years," says University of Michigan Junior, Jorge Luna, referring to that of electric vehicles. This week, 75 colleges from around the world came to Michigan International Speedway to put their EVs to the test in the Formula SAE Competition.
As he and his team have no better backdrop to race their car, Luna shares, "You see the big stands and overall racetrack and it helps get you in the mood to compete and go for a win and bring home some hardware."
This four day competition tests each car's design, acceleration, skid pad, autocross, and competes in a 22 kilometer endurance race.
Senior and driver of the University of Michigan's car, Miguel Bigott, explains what it's like to drive his team's EV. "It's unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Just the G-force you experience in this car, it's incredible. It's like riding a roller coaster but three or four times that."
Watch last month's competition:
With EVs being a growing industry, who better to ask what the future of EVs may look like, than those who have spent the past year building one? Aerodynamics Director and next year's Team Captain, Jonathon Casler, says, "There's a lot of potential in them. Obviously, there's a lot of issues with range and charging, but we're slowly seeing more and more companies and more and more universities research that. I think we have great potential for every car on the road being electric in the near future."
Until then, these students are only focused on one thing: winning. Casler continues, "We practice and we plan and prepare and try to manufacture and design the best car we can. Being able to be here and test it and be competitive with these other schools is a great feeling."
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