The Michigan Tech Solar Car Team was founded in 2009 with the mission to educate people about solar energy and its feasibility for transportation. Their vision is to be a competitive and effective solar car team that advocates for renewable energy technology. Their objectives are to produce a working solar vehicle for the 2011 Shell Eco-Marathon competition and increase their visibility on campus for educational opportunities. The team is organized into mechanical, electrical, and business sub-teams led by sub-team leaders who report to the project leader. They are currently in the design and research stage of developing their first solar car for the Eco-Marathon competition.

1. Solar Car Team
Michigan Technological University
Business Plan
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2. Company Description
Mission Statement
The Michigan Tech Solar Car Team’s Mission is “To use innovation in solar transportation
technology to educate people regarding the feasibility and sustainability of solar energy
generation.”
Vision
‐To be a competitive solar car team
‐Be a highly effective and efficient Enterprise team
‐Be vocal advocates of renewable energy technology with emphasis on solar energy
‐Provide real‐world, hands‐on experience for students
‐Establish an infrastructure to allow longevity beyond the first generation of contributors
Objectives
‐Produce a working solar vehicle for competition in the Shell Eco‐Marathon by April of 2011
‐Increase visibility on and off campus to allow for educational opportunities
‐Be involved in solar energy dialogue with other solar teams and industry
Keys to Success
‐Increase team membership and skill diversity with a goal of adding at least 6 new team
members by the spring of 2010.
‐Obtain diversified sponsorship by working with the enterprise program to have partial funding
of $10,000 by March of 2010.
‐Acquire necessary skills and experience with manufacturing processes involved in the
production of a solar car
History
The Michigan Technological University Solar Car Team was founded in January of 2009 as a
project within the Alternative Fuels Group Enterprise brought on by the desire of student
Brennan Tymrak to use solar energy for transportation purposes. With an original goal of
investigating the feasibility of creating a competitive solar car team on campus, team members
researched the North American Solar Challenge including technical and logistical aspects as well
as costs. The team came to the conclusion that competition in the North American Solar
Challenge was not currently a feasible option for the team. In the fall of 2009, the Solar Car
team learned of the Shell‐Eco Marathon as a much more viable option for the team’s current
financial and technical situation. With a goal of competing in the 2011 Eco‐Marathon, the team
is currently researching the competition, designing vehicle concepts, and working to increase
team membership.
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3.
Organization and Management
Organization
The Michigan Tech Solar Car Team has based its organization upon the standard Michigan Tech
enterprise organizational model. The team operates as an entity of the Alternative Fuels Group
Enterprise, but has its own management. Our organizational model consists of:
Enterprise
Project
Advisor
Leader
Mechanical
Electrical Business
Sub‐Team Leader Sub‐Team Leader
Sub‐Team Leader
Team Member
Team Member Team Member
Team Member Team Member
Team Member
Team Member Team Member
Project Leader – The project leader is the single person who leads the team and coordinates
operations. They manage the team as a whole and are responsible for informing the enterprise
advisor about the progress of the group. They must ensure that all sub‐teams are staying on
track and that the project is keeping to the schedule to make sure the team meets the deadline.
Communication, organization, leadership, and dedication exemplify the necessary traits from
the project leader. The project leader is also a member of a sub‐team and performs the various
technical tasks associated with the sub‐team.
Sub‐Team Leaders – The sub‐team leaders for the three different sub‐teams, mechanical,
electrical and business, are responsible for their progress of their respective sub‐teams. They
manage their sub‐team members, as well as work on the sub‐teams projects with the team
members. They must coordinate with other sub‐team leaders to make sure that designs are
compatible across the different aspects of the solar car. They are also responsible for making
sure their team has the necessary resources needed to complete their tasks. Sub‐team leaders
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4. report to the project leader about their progress and with any needs or concerns they may
have.
Team Members‐ All returning team members will continue completing their tasks as defined by
their sub‐team leaders. However, new team members will be responsible for updating the
Michigan Tech Solar Team’s business plan along with their other responsibilities. By updating
the business plan each semester this ensures that the plan is up to date and reflects the current
goals and strategies of the team. It also allows for the new members to become acquainted
with the history and philosophy behind the Michigan Tech Solar Car team. This process will
require the new members to become acquainted with all of the different aspects of team
management and operation by interviewing the team leaders and project leader about the
goals for the next semester. The hope is that with this project the new members will feel that
they have some stake in the success of the team and it will give them the required background
to operate successfully within the team.
Management Profiles
While the Solar Car team is a new project, the management team is highly motivated to make
the project a success. Due to their current educational status, they have the knowledge and
skills necessary to propel the project to a solid start while obtaining the specific technical skills
needed to continue the project’s progress. The management also has the interpersonal skills
required to bring new team members up to speed on the project as well as share their skills.
Brennan Tymrak ‐ Project Leader
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Minor: Electrical Engineering
Year: 3rd
Brennan started the Solar Car team through a desire to have a solar power project on campus.
His personal interest in renewable energy has made him entirely committed to the Solar Car
Team and dedicated to its success. Through past leadership of engineering teams, he has
developed the skills necessary to lead the team to achieve its goals.
Dan Sallen – Mechanical Sub‐Team Leader
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Year: 3rd
Dan joined the Solar Car team out of an interest in renewable energy and the want to apply the
skills and knowledge obtain in classes to real world problems. He has displayed hard work ethic
by picking up the slack on previous engineering teams to ensure that the projects were
completed to the necessary quality standards. His experience through work in the business
industry brings an important skill set to the team.
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5. Ben Markel – Team Member
Major: Chemical Engineering
Year: 1st
Ben has joined the team as a freshman and is excited about being on the team. His willingness
to assist with all aspects of the project has been an important asset to the team due to its small
number of members. As Ben furthers his knowledge base through classes and experience on
the team he will play an ever increasingly important role.
Description of Product
The Michigan Technological University Solar Car Team is working to develop a competitive solar
car for racing in the Shell Eco‐Marathon yearly. The solar car is not simply a production vehicle
with some sort of solar electric assist. It is a highly streamlined and efficient machine that is
driven entirely through electric wheel mounted motors and charged only by solar cells affixed
to the shell of the vehicle. Care is taken during the design and manufacturing process to ensure
that the vehicle is as light in weight as possible and that rolling resistance is minimized. When in
operation, the vehicle is assisted by complex math models to ensure the most efficient use of
the power generated. To achieve all of this the Team is acquiring and will utilize expertise
within the areas of solar cell technology and vehicle dynamics to deliver the optimal vehicle for
participation within the Eco‐Marathon.
Our current development stage is that of formation, continued research and preliminary
modeling. Previously we completed an investigation into what it takes to compete in solar
racing and what types of races were out there. We established a rough estimate for our budget
and presented it to our advisor to establish the feasibility of creating a solar car team at
Michigan Tech. We were given approval to proceed with the project and have now completed a
preliminary math model for power generation and vehicle dynamics along with the outer shell
and solar cell placement model in UniGraphics NX5.
Market Analysis
The Solar Car team’s competition falls into two categories: technical competition at the event
and monetary competition.
Our competition in the race is primarily other college level engineering teams. This is due to the
high level of technical expertise and monetary investment required to be competitive. These
factors limit the inclusion of high school level teams, although a few teams do exist. At the
same time the speed, weight, and practical limitations imposed by the race guidelines do not
make this race attractive for larger, professional level solar teams. This limits our field of
competition to groups with the same level of experience and access to capital as ourselves.
Last year there were three teams competing in our bracket within the race.
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Monetary competition comes from other solar teams in the Eco‐Marathon, solar teams in other
competitions, and other enterprise teams at Michigan Tech. Due to the larger costs associated
with solar racing when compared to other college‐level projects, solar teams require either
greater sponsor investments, or a larger pool of sponsors. This need is compounded as more
solar teams reach out to the same sponsors. The Michigan Tech Solar Car team would be the
fourth team to enter the Eco‐Marathon solar division. While this is a small number, it does not
represent the total number of competitive solar car teams in the United States. Approximately
20 other teams compete in the North American Solar Challenge (NASC), a much larger and
more expensive competition requiring even more sponsorship commitment. We have chosen
to compete in the less expensive Eco‐Marathon to allow for less financial commitment from our
sponsors while still producing a quality vehicle. This allows us to be flexible by not be as
committed to a costly design as well as requiring us to use funds in the most efficient way
possible.
Other enterprise teams on campus constitute a major portion of our competition in both
money and human resources. Currently there are 32 enterprise teams at Michigan Tech with
four teams participating in vehicle design competitions and at least five teams with projects
involving renewable energy and fuel efficiency other than the Alternative Fuels Group
Enterprise. The Solar Car team is currently the only solar‐based vehicle project on campus. This
means we are unique in directly using alternative energy from the specific purpose of powering
a car. While other enterprise teams have been established for a number of years and secured a
sponsor base, the Solar Car team is new and has no base to draw from. While this creates a
challenge, it also is an opportunity to open up new communication channels with businesses
that have not been sponsors of any Michigan Tech project before and allows us to create a new
link with different areas of industry.
Marketing Strategy
Our primary marketing goal is to raise funds or obtain material donations that can go towards
the construction of our solar car and ultimately the participation of our team in the Shell Eco‐
Marathon. We will do this by working with the Michigan Tech Enterprise program to solicit
companies in the larger engineering and manufacturing community who may be interested in
our project. For their donations we are prepared to offer our sponsors many advertising
opportunities with our team. These opportunities include decals on the side of the actual solar
car, logo placement on our team website, logo placement on any posters we present to the
community, recognition in any literature we may put out regarding solar racing and car design,
company name on team shirts for in shop or at competition, logos alongside recruitment slides
to be shown before weekly Tech movies, signage at recruitment drives, and finally logo
placement on our proof of concept R/C solar racer. Also the Team is open to any request by the
sponsor for any advertising they may want to utilize regarding the solar car and the Team.
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7. Another key aspect to our marketing strategy is in how we will go about meeting our
recruitment goals. This is a great opportunity for early sponsors to get their names in front of
future engineers. We plan to recruit heavily over the next year. Our initial goal is to expand our
group to at least eight individuals with varied skill sets by the next semester. We plan to do this
by creating the signage for our larger Alternative Fuels Group recruitment drive so we can make
sure that our project is very visible. At the same time we are planning to put out directed
recruitment posters to each of our target audiences, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers,
and business majors. Each poster with be designed to emphasize the aspects of the project that
each major would be involved in and their importance to the Team. The posters will then be
placed around the areas where the majority of the classes for each targeted major are located.
This will hopefully catch the interest of the types of majors we are looking for and get them to
come to the AFG recruitment meeting where we will pitch our project to them. Also by the end
of the school year we are planning to complete a proof of concept R/C solar car to gain some
experience working with the solar cells and at the same time use that mini project as an
advertising tool in our continued recruitment efforts. At that point our recruitment strategy
might include using our R/C solar concept to drive around campus with signage advertising our
meeting time and place as well as our sponsor information. This will generate curiosity about
our enterprise as well as providing information about us and the potential for early and
continued sponsorship advertising.
Once we have attained our desired human resource levels we will fully institute our personnel
management plan as described in the management section. This will allow for a defined
structure and assign roles that facilitate the accomplishment of our goals.
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Summary of Start up Costs
System Component Quantity Price
Chassis
4130 Chromoly Steel $1,800
Shocks ‐ Fox Shox DHX 5.0 3 $1,200
Michelin Tires‐from Shell 6 $270
Brakes 2 $240
Solar Array
Solar Cells 300 $6,750
Solar Cell Encapsulation 300 $8,250
MPPT 4 $4,000
Battery Pack
Batteries‐ Kokam SLPB 12 $3,000
Motor
Motor ‐ NGM In‐Hub Motor 1 $1,000
Motor Controller‐Tritium Motor 1 $5,380
Controller
Body
Kevlar, Carbon Fiber, Nomex $6,000
Honeycomb
Logistics
Registration Fee $0
Travel ‐ Vehicles, Gas, Lodging $7,090
Travel Allowance (over 2001 miles) ($1,500)
Team T‐Shirts 10 $120
Workspace $2000
Miscellaneous
Electronic Components‐ Battery $3,000
protection, telemetry, custom
circuits, etc.
Various Required Components ‐ Seat $500
Belt, Horn, Steering wheel, etc.
Tools
Starter tools w/rolling box $400
Locking tool cabinet $600
Specialized Tools $1,500
Total $51,600
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