Team History:

The HEV program started in 1996 when a group of five seniors proposed a joint senior design project with an eye towards the future of hybrid automotive technology. Their goal was to take their vehicle to the NESEA American Tour de Sol, the national electric and hybrid vehicle championship.

The original team designed and built a series hybrid system with unbelievable dedication: finally, at 6am the day of the 1997 Tour de Sol, they decided that Garnet One was ready to race.

The Garnet One team accomplished the rare feat of actually making it across the finish line on its own power as a first year entrant. They received further acclaim for team spirit, and were awarded the Blue Sky Club Sportsmanship Award. Members of this team went on to work in diverse places, from investing/consulting on Wall Street, designing hybrid buses for Lockheed Martin, to tuna fishing in the Pacific.

In 1998, the team made the news again with an impressive third place finish. However, in the heat of the race, a small shift in alignment caused the original manual transmission to burn out. A donated 3-speed automatic transmission was put in the car, and Garnet One became operational again in 2000.

At the 2000 Tour de Sol, Swarthmore was the only team using CNG, and Garnet One was one of only two series hybrids. With other teams and corporations presenting parallel hybrid systems offering performance comparable to conventional cars, our highly efficient yet medium-performance series system was at a disadvantage. Despite this, we finished in fourth place.

We are now preparing to take our experience and technology to the next level on our new vehicle platform, the 2001 Suzuki Swift. Suzuki has provided us with the lightweight and fuel-efficient base vehicle we have been looking for, and we hope to return to the Tour de Sol with a much improved and more competitive vehicle.

Working on a hybrid electric vehicle is a truly multi-displinary task. It involves solving problems in mechanics, electrics, electronics, power electronics, fluid dynamics, solar energy, and also economics, environmental sciences, fund raising, politics, market analysis, team work, logistics, planning and management. This is all done in a real-world setting in which the deadline to be met is the beginning of the Tour de Sol.

The Hybrid Electric Vehicle project shows Swarthmore's continued interest and commitment to exploring more efficient technologies for a cleaner environment.