ABSTRACT The University of Tennessee, Knoxville's (UTK) EcoCAR 2 team developed a Series-Parallel Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) that utilizes E85 fuel. The vehicle was developed and modeled in Year One of the EcoCAR 2 competition. The team has spent Year Two refining the theoretical design from Year One and implementing the design into a working mule vehicle. The developed architecture has been integrated into a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu, which was donated by General Motors. The team focused on strengthening the replacement and modified components, integrating the new vehicle components, bench testing the vehicle controller and implementing the entire design into a working vehicle. INTRODUCTION The EcoCAR 2 competition marks twenty-five years of collegiate advanced vehicle technology competitions (A VTC) established by the Department of Energy. EcoCAR 2 [ 1] is a three year collegiate automotive engineering competition in which fifteen universities compete in designing, building, and refining a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu (donated by General Motors) into a vehicle which increases energy efficiency, reduces criteria and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reduces petroleum usage, while maintaining consumer satisfaction of safety, utility, and performance The vehicle was developed and modeled in Year One of the EcoCAR 2 competition. Year Two of the EcoCAR 2 competition focuses on the fabrication of a mule vehicle according to the chosen architecture, components, and packaging developed in Year One. The donated Chevrolet Malibu is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. EcoCAR 2 Donated Chevrolet Malibu The University of Tennessee's EcoCAR 2 hybrid vehicle design team (Team Tennessee) broke the engineering teams into five specific engineering teams: mechanical, thermal, controls, electrical, and center stack. The mechanical team was broken into two sub-teams: Front mechanical and rear mechanical. The mechanical team focused on the completion of structural validation through Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the Computer Aided Design (CAD) models that began in Year One and implementation of the vehicle components for the various subsystems, with the front and rear mechanical teams working on the front and rear powertrains. The thermal team focused on the Energy Storage System (ESS), fuel tank development, structural validation, and fabrication. The controls team was tasked with integrating the new components into the control strategy, bench-testing the components, and integrating all components into the Controller Area Network (CAN), which is the communication method for the Malibu. The electrical team developed the high voltage, low voltage, and other various schematics for the electrical components. This team was also responsible for the wiring harnesses and The University of Tennessee's EcoCAR 2 Year Two Final Technical Report2013-01-2494 Published 10/14/2013 John P. Utley, Jacob B. Wilson, Michael D. Potts, Matt G. Bush, David K. Irick, and David E. Smith The University of Tennessee Copyright © 2013 SAE International and Copyright © 2013 KSAE doi:10.4271/2013-01-2494Downloaded from SAE International by Birmingham City Univ, Tuesday, August 21, 2018routing. The center stack team developed the infotainment system that is integrated into the vehicle's dash for relevant data display. USE OF ECOCAR 2 VEHICLE DESIGN PROCESS AND CHOSEN ARCHITECTURE The EcoCAR 2 Vehicle Development Process (VDP) was revised from the General Motors Global Vehicle Development Process (GVDP). The three year process is broken down into three subcategories of work for each of the three years. Year One involves modeling and design of a vehicle which satisfies the goals of the competition. Once the design has been completed, it is implemented in Year Two, and refined and optimized in Year Three. At the end of Year One, Tennessee held a Project Initiation Approval (PIA) presentation, which represents the GVDP's first gate, thus allowing the team to receive the ke