A Waterloo Engineering student design team has been selected as one of 20 universities across North America to compete in the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge, the next 4-year installment of the Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions series.
The University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) is one of only two Canadian universities chosen and the only Canadian team in the Stellantis track, where they will work with a 2026 Jeep Cherokee hybrid.
Managed by Argonne National Laboratory and sponsored by the United States’ Department of Energy (DOE), General Motors, Stellantis and MathWorks, EcoCAR is the fifteenthinstallment of the DOE’s Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions series. It challenges student teams to redesign and re-engineer real vehicles using emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning and model-based design.
UWAFT will focus on reimagining the Cherokee's propulsion system, developing high-voltage battery solutions and integrating advanced software tools, including autonomous features, to balance off-road capability, efficiency, mobility and safety.
"Tomorrow's mobility solutions will be shaped by teams who can take on real-world challenges, innovate across disciplines and provide practical, intelligent results for our customers," said Micky Bly, Stellantis’s senior vice president of global propulsion systems engineering, in a media release. "EcoCAR gives students that experience, and we're excited to support their development by providing the 2026 Jeep Cherokee hybrid."
"The hands-on experiential learning provided by EcoCAR is simply unmatched,” said Dr. Roydon Fraser, a mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor and UWAFT faculty advisor. “Using state-of-the-art technology, coupled with a high level of industry mentoring, hundreds of both graduate and undergraduate students will be trained to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow, whether or not they go into the automotive industry.”
The competition runs from 2026 to 2030.
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Unlike their American counterparts, Canadian teams do not receive the $95,000 USD annual funding provided to U.S. schools. If you are aware of any sponsorship or donation opportunities that could support UWAFT, reach out to the team at uwaft.ca/meet-the-team.
Hilus Kevy, a third-year computer engineering student and UWAFT team member, and Dr. Roydon Fraser, UWAFT's faculty advisor, pose with Waterloo's Jeep Cherokee at the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge launch event in April.