Students in Purdue Electric Racing spend the school year designing, building, and testing a Formula-style race car, powered entirely by batteries. First organized by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) in 2013, the competition is similar to their combustion-powered Baja and Formula contests, with subtle differences specific to electric cars.  For example, the technical inspection for a Formula Electric car includes deluging the car with water, to ensure that sensitive electronic components are protected.

This year's Purdue Electric Racing team was based out of Bechtel Innovation Design Center, a new advanced prototyping facility on campus where students have access to machining tools, waterjet cutting, laser cutting, and many other manufacturing facilities to build the parts they need.

The Formula North contest included 50 universities from Canada, United States, Brazil, India, and Pakistan. Purdue's electric race car passed technical inspection for the first time in its history, allowing them to compete in dynamic events. They achieved first place in the skidpad test (measuring turning radius), and first place in the acceleration test.  They finished third in the overall electric competition, topped only by Rochester Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University.

"This is an amazing accomplishment," said Todd Nelson, Assistant Director of Senior Design in Mechanical Engineering, and the team’s faculty advisor. "Just getting the car through technical inspection is a grueling enough process. But then to race as well as they did? That is really something. This is the best ever finish by a Purdue Electric Racing team, and they deserve every accolade."

There's no rest for the weary engineers, however. They will next compete in the Formula SAE Electric competition in Lincoln, Nebraska on June 20-23.