General Motors representatives visited the new Scott Lab on Thursday to meet with engineering students and exhibit three new alternative fuel vehicles.
On display was a 2007 Saturn Outlook, a high performance Saturn Ion, a dual mode hybrid Chevy Tahoe and the Ohio State “Challenge X” team’s hybrid Chevy Equinox.
Ed Kaiser, a GM motor design release engineer and OSU alumnus, explained to about 70 students the history of the company and how it has been developing more fuel efficient vehicles over the past few decades.
“I think it’s the way to go,” said Mike Arnett, a graduate student in mechanical engineering. “Petroleum will eventually run out and it’s good that GM is starting to push the technology.”
GM used the exhibit to spur discussion among OSU’s engineering students about the new field in automotive engineering.
“We wanted to sit down and talk to people who are interested in working on these cars and developing an alternative for consumers,” said Ken Sperry, GM engineering group manager.
Arnett, who is also a member of OSU’s “Challenge X” team, said he believes hybrid cars are only a temporary solution.
“I think that electric power or fuel cells, which is hydrogen power, are more realistic options that can be used in the future,” he said.
Kris Sevel, another mechanical engineering graduate student, agreed. He said ethanol and biodiesel can’t do the job for too long because of agricultural limits.
“Other alternative fuels should be looked into because the cost of gas is too high not to,” he said.
Eric Schacht, a sophomore in electrical engineering, examined one of the alternative fuel engines.
“We need to do everything we can,” he said.
Sperry agreed. “There is a lot of room for innovation left,” he said.
