Students from UC Davis were the darlings of the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco this week, showing off their award-winning redesign of a 2000 Chevrolet Suburban into a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). The vehicle, left, named Sequoia, gets 30 MPG and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 53-68%, according to a report produced by the students.

The Sequoia is basically an electric sports utility vehicle (SUV) with embedded systems that automatically switch to a gas engine at cruising speeds, when gas engines perform at peak efficiency. During accelerations and about-town driving, the car uses its electric motor. The Sequoia isn't a wimp, either. It can tow as much and accelerate as well as the stock Chevy Suburban. And its range is 460 miles, only100 miles less than stock, according the vehicle documentation.

Produced at the UC Davis Hybrid Electric Vehicle Center, the Sequoia uses two independent powertrains to provide four-wheel drive and achieve the same towing capacity as the 2000 Suburban. It uses an unmodified Saturn 1.9 liter gas engine and two 75kW electric engines, one for the rear and one for the front wheels. The controller board is a generic HCI2 board with two daughter boards connected on a CAN-based controller network.

UC Davis won first prize with this vehicle at FutureTruck 2001. The Davis team was one of 15 universities in the U.S. and Canada sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors to compete in the annual FutureTruck competition.

Mark Alexander, one of the students who worked on the embedded systems in the car, explained that this and most electric cars won't be a drain on electric power grid. Theoretically, they add power to the power grid because electricity can be pulled from the cars into the grid when recharging. The common car, he explained, is the most powerful and power-consuming/producing appliance in your household. "Imagine if everyone's car were connected to the power grid," he said. Next year, the students will see if the theory works in reality.

The UC Davis team has gotten a lot of press this week. "CNET put us in 30 markets," said Alexander, slightly incredulous about the coverage.

To find out more about the Sequoia, a vehicle any soccer mom would be proud to drive, visit the team's Web site at http://www.team-fate.net/index.html.