Electric Vehicle Team running on empty and proud of it

The dashboard of the Electric Lion has two prominent dials. One is labeled "FUEL" and the other "VOLTS."

Under the hood, the car is so radically different from any other vehicle that it perplexes mechanics who conduct state emissions inspections.

Students on the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team, a project of the Penn State Society of Automotive Engineers, gather every week in a brightly-lit garage to modify their work in progress: A 1992 Ford Escort Wagon that runs with the help of both electricity and liquid propane.

"Everything we build here is experimental," said Wojtek Hajduczek, project leader. "There's no manuals to go on when something goes wrong."

The experimental Electric Lion is the product of six years of student design, construction and tweaking.

Apart from solving technical design problems and working hands-on with automotive tools, members of the team also spend time promoting their car and applying for donations and grants, Hajduczek said.

"The stereotype is that this is a mechanical or electrical engineering club only, but it isn't," Hajduczek said.

About 17 people show up at each meeting, Hajduczek estimated, but he said the team is always seeking new members.

At a recent meeting, Bill Appel (senior-mechanical engineering) said he was allowed to remount a support bar across the engine after only his second day on the team.

"It's a good opportunity to get some hands-on experience" Appel said.

In addition to giving students opportunities to learn, the team's goal is to place first in the American Tour de Sol, an annual electric vehicle competition organized by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA).

Last year, the car placed second in its class, said Rick Stroman (sophomore-physics), a member of the team who helped race the car in the in the tour.

The competition not only requires the cars to travel over 300 miles of roads, but also compares qualities such as efficiency, handling and practicality, according to the NESEA World Wide Web site.

Since the project started, the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team's car has gone through numerous changes, traveled hundreds of miles in competitions and been on display at the New York International Auto Show.

From the outside, only the numerous sponsorship decals indicate that there is anything unusual about the car.

Two computer-controlled electric motors drive the car, each spinning one front wheel. A propane engine under the hood runs when necessary to keep 12 lead-acid batteries charged.

Stroman said cars similar to the Electric Lion are likely to become more common in the future because of their dramatic improvement in city fuel efficiency.

High prices and low consumer demand keep hybrid cars from becoming a mainstream product, but cars similar to the Electric Lion could be on the road within a few years, Hajduczek said.

"You could go for a weekend trip in this if you wanted to," said team member Mike George (sophomore-landscape contracting).