advances in electric vehicles
the Clean Snowmobile
challenge
tracy DahL
S
22 November/December 2010 SOLAR TODA Y solartoday.org
nowmobiles have become a cultural
and economic fixture across the
upper half of North America. They
are an irreplaceable working resource
and a wintertime recreation staple.
But the gas-powered sled has a dark
side. Until recently, snowmobiles were designed
purely for speed and handling. They therefore
used light and powerful — but loud and inefficient — two-stroke engines. These emitted
large quantities of unburned hydrocarbons and
particulates while getting as little as 10 miles per
gallon ( 4. 25 kilometers per liter). And they were
loud. They earned a reputation for generating air,
water and noise pollution, for displacing other
over-snow travelers and disrupting wildlife habitat. Inevitably, environmentalists, snowshoers,
cross-country skiers and even dog-sled mushers
called for snowmobiles to be barred from many
parks and trail systems.
By 1999, the Clinton administration pro-
posed a ban on recreational snowmobiling in
Yellowstone National Park. Partly in response,
the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) that
year initiated the Clean Snowmobile Challenge
(CSC), inviting college engineering students to
redesign snowmobiles for efficiency, low noise
levels and low emissions. Originally held in Jack-
son Hole, Wyo., a few miles south of Yellowstone,
the event has evolved to encompass working
snowmobiles as well as recreational machines.
