About Electrathon America
THE RACE TO GO FARTHEST ON THE LEAST ENERGY
Electrathon America is a national student electric vehicle program built around a simple challenge: maximize efficiency. By designing, building, and racing ultra-efficient vehicles, students gain hands-on experience while exploring engineering, skilled trades, and emerging technology careers.
Why Efficiency Matters
Efficiency isn't glamorous on the surface, but it's the engine behind every company that changed the world.
“Use less energy” doesn’t sound thrilling. Look closer. SpaceX lands rockets to reuse every gram of fuel. Tesla rebuilt the car around the electron. Toyota grew an empire on doing more with less. The biggest breakthroughs of our era are efficiency stories, and that’s exactly the problem Electrathon students fall in love with.
Energy & Utilities
The future won’t be built by wasting resources. It will be built by engineers, technicians, and innovators who can accomplish more with less.
Transportation & Mobility
From electric vehicles and renewable energy to aerospace and advanced manufacturing, efficiency drives progress.
Aerospace & Technology
Electrathon gives students the opportunity to tackle that challenge firsthand. Success comes from smart design, careful testing, strategic thinking, and continuous improvement.
What is Electrathon?
One driver. One hour. One battery.
Teams design and build a lightweight, single-seat electric vehicle. On race day, every car runs the same format: one hour on a closed course, powered by a limited battery allowance. The car that completes the most laps wins.
Because energy is capped, winning is about engineering efficiency and race strategy, aerodynamics, weight, rolling resistance, and how the driver manages power, not raw horsepower. It’s the most educational form of motorsport in the country.
The Numbers
Efficiency measured in real-world performance
Electrathon cars are evaluated in MPGe (miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent), a standard measure of energy efficiency. Built and optimized by student teams, these vehicles consistently achieve efficiency levels that exceed many production electric vehicles.
Put another way, Electrathon vehicles can travel significantly farther on the same amount of energy than most consumer electric vehicles.
That combination of performance, constraint, and hands-on design is what defines the program. Students learn engineering concepts in the classroom and then apply them to real-world challenges in energy, transportation, and advanced manufacturing through measurable efficiency outcomes.
The Format
How a race works
Tech inspection
Every car is checked for safety and rules compliance, battery limits, braking, roll protection.
Green flag
All cars launch together. The clock starts and runs for a full 60 minutes.
Manage the energy
Teams balance speed against battery life. Driver swaps and pit strategy matter.
Most laps wins
When the hour ends, total distance decides the standings in each class.
Who Competes
Two classes, one paddock
Students never age out of the sport, they graduate into it.
For school teams
Students in grades 9–12 build and race under an advisor. The on-ramp to the sport, with rules and support designed for first-time builders.
- Advisor-led, classroom friendly
- Curriculum & grant resources
- Regional events near you
For everyone else
Colleges, clubs, alumni and adult builders. Fewer restrictions, more experimentation, the proving ground for advanced engineering.
- Keeps alumni in the sport
- Advanced & experimental builds
- Builds the community pipeline
Heart behind the race
In memory of Bob Franz
A longtime champion of hands-on engineering education and student electric-vehicle racing, Bob Franz dedicated his work to giving young people a real, affordable path into STEM through motorsport.
A passionate educator and early Electrathon pioneer, Bob Franz dedicated his life to empowering students through hands-on engineering and innovation. As founder of Los Altos Academy of Engineering, he inspired young people to build, create, and think beyond traditional boundaries. Though he passed away in 2024, his legacy lives on through the Bob Franz Foundation and generations of future engineers.
Governance
Board OF DIRECTORS
The people who steer the organization engineers, educators and industry leaders committed to keeping the sport rigorous, safe and accessible.
MIKE MERCHANT
Chair
CEO of Codazen and a Bob Franz alum who raced Electrathon and solar cars. Brings 25+ years of digital innovation experience to the Foundation.
Oscar Juarez
Vice Chair
Pioneering EV engineer since 1994 and Bob Franz alum whose work at AC Propulsion contributed directly to the technology behind the original Tesla Roadster.
Erika Woo
Secretary
A Bob Franz Foundation alum who built solar vehicles, worked at JPL on the Mars Rovers, and holds a master’s in Industrial Design from ArtCenter.
Angela Lee
Treasurer
UCSD engineering grad with an MBA and 25+ years in software, product, and program management. Passionate about mentoring young professionals and advancing financial literacy.
Our History
35+ years on the grid
First Electrathon events run in the U.S., adapting a format born in the U.K.
Regional structure formalized — sanctioned events spread coast to coast.
High School class booms as STEM funding makes programs accessible.
67+ active teams across 16 states racing a over 140 different cars.
