Auburn Engineering team wins back-to-back national championships in electric car competition
Published: Jun 17, 2025 4:00 PM
By Jeremy Henderson
Mechanical engineering sophomore Eliana Floyd grew up watching racing with her dad. She's been into cars for as long as she can remember. So, for her, just standing in pit lane would have made the hours in the Makerspace designing, cutting and clamping panels, bleeding brakes and slapping duct tape on the frame worth it.
But to actually win a race — a national championship — at Talladega? That was more electric than the car itself.
"I have never felt prouder of a project than I did at that moment," Floyd said.
She's speaking of the Electric Car Challenge, the marquee initiative of Huntsville-based STEM-focused educational outreach organization, Greenpower USA. The program, which primarily provides kits that students use to construct an electric race car, with the aim of fostering problem-solving skills and critical thinking.
Auburn's team was organized two years ago as part of 2023 graduate Jackson Blanks' senior design project. Blanks, who had competed on one the nation's premiere Electric Car Challenge teams as a high school student at Inspire Academy in Lafeyette, wanted to explore the possibility of building a Greenpower USA car.
Blanks' senior design advisor, mechanical engineering senior lecturer Jordan Roberts, gave the greenlight.
"Jackson was a former student of mine and reached out about wanting to build a car," said Seth Steuhower, who directs Inspire Academy's Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies program, including its Greenpower USA efforts. "But the idea then kind of became, well, Auburn could actually start a Greenpower team in the process."
The timing seemed perfect; Greenpower USA had recently expanded the Electric Car Challenge to include a university-corporate division.
For Roberts, adding a Greenpower USA team to Auburn Engineering's already robust motorsports portfolio, which includes War Eagle Motorsports (Formula SAE), Auburn Off-Road, the Auburn iRacing team and Autonomous Tiger Racing, was a no-brainer.
Steuhower, an Auburn graduate, was happy to help his alma mater get started.
"Inspire Academy actually sponsored the Auburn team," Steuhower said. "We used our funding to give the university a kit to start with, and we've been providing them with materials and guidance where we can.”
That guidance paid off. Last year, in its first year of competition, Auburn placed first in its division at the Greenpower USA Electric Car Challenge at the iconic Talladega Superspeedway.
In early May, they did it again.
"We had a lot of problems to tackle, and not a lot of time," Floyd said. "We had to define our problems, brainstorm multiple solutions, research the benefits and potential setbacks of each solution, and then manufacture and implement. Each step took a while, but thankfully we had a strong team that made the process smooth.
"The success we had this year is directly related to the amount of work and care we put into the car this semester."
But that success doesn’t just mean trophies.
"There's a great dual impact here," Roberts said. "This program not only provides an exceptional hands-on learning experience for our students, but it can also serve as a way for the students we've partnered with at Inspire Academy to see themselves as engineers at the college level. It's a win-win."
Steuhower, who's also in early discussions with Auburn to allow his existing Greenpower USA efforts at Inspire to count as college credit, agrees.
"I think partnering with Auburn with this program can provide some crucial confidence in students who may not naturally envision themselves attending a four-year university, or succeeding in a rigorous engineering program like Auburn's."
It's also helped Floyd envision herself competing at the next level, too.
"I got involved in Auburn Greenpower to explore the world of motorsports and see if it was the right fit for me," Floyd said. "I was able to meet the Auburn Formula SAE racing team through this, and my competitive streak and desire to learn thrived in this environment. It would be great to get hands-on experience so early in my major. I plan to continue a career in race engineering. This experience has grown my love for racing, and I would do it over and over again if I could."
Media Contact: , jdh0123@auburn.edu, 334-844-3591
Auburn's Greenpower USA team celebrates its second national championship at the Talladega Superspeedway. From left to right are engineering students Peyton Harley, Tony Melof, Jack Stryker, Ryland Hale, Eliana Floyd, Carter Gwynn, Ally Campbell, Brooke Russell and Bryan Morse.
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