NFPA Announces Winners of 2026 Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge

A record 32 teams competed in the 2026 National Fluid Power Association’s (NFPA) Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge. Winners from the program’s three final competition events have been chosen, recognizing the design efforts of participating teams. 

Geared toward undergraduate-level students, the Vehicle Challenge tasks teams with creating a fluid powered-vehicle. Their final vehicles are then put to the test in a series of races held during the final competition events.

These competition events were held at three different NFPA member company locations:

• Sun Hydraulics in Sarasota, FL, April 8-10
• IFP Motion Solutions in Cedar Rapids, IA, April 15-17
• IMI plc in Rockford, IL, April 22-24.

Winners of the 2026 Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge

Teams participating in the Vehicle Challenge must bring together two unlikely pairs — a bicycle and fluid power. While much of the design is up to the students’ discretion, teams typically have to include the following elements:

• an accumulator for storing energy
• an electronic control system for the vehicle
• regeneration technology.

Students work on their designs over the course of the school year, and receive feedback from members of the fluid power industry throughout the process.

IFP Motion Solutions-Hosted Event Winners

Grand Champions

• 1st Place: University of Cincinnati
• 2nd Place: Iowa State University
• 3rd Place: Oakland University

Best Use of Pneumatics: South Dakota State University

Best Use of Electronics: Oakland University

IMI-Hosted Event Winners

Grand Champions

• 1st Place: Cleveland State University
• 2nd Place: Loyola Marymount University
• 3rd Place: Texas A&M University

Best Use of Pneumatics: Texas A&M University

Best Use of Electronics: Northern Illinois University

How the Vehicle Challenge Benefits Students and the Fluid Power Industry 

Now in its 10th year, the Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge continues to grow, helping expose engineering students to hydraulic and pneumatic technologies.

The Vehicle Challenge provides students with hands-on experience that helps them develop their engineering skills as well as introduce them to fluid power technologies.

For many students, participating in the challenge may be their first exposure to hydraulics and pneumatics. This was the case with students I spoke to in 2023 from the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) who participated in that year’s competition. All of them expressed interest working with fluid power more in the future after the positive experience they had participating in the Vehicle Challenge.

The Vehicle Challenge is one of NFPA’s many workforce development initiatives aimed at exposing students to hydraulics and pneumatics in the hopes of attracting them to a career in the fluid power industry.

Attracting younger engineers to the industry is becoming increasingly important as the number of people retiring from it grows. And as many people in the industry have told me over the years, fluid power is not always the first career route that comes to mind for engineering students.

But with programs like the Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge, there is an opportunity to expose more students to all of the interesting work that can be done in the hydraulics and pneumatics industry. Since its inception, over 1,000 students have taken part in the Vehicle Challenge.

Involvement from the fluid power industry is an important component of the program as well. NFPA member companies have the opportunity to serve as mentors, judges and event hosts. This enables them to not only offer their expertise to the next generation of engineers but also potentially recruit future employees.

These kinds of connections are vital to ensuring the longevity of the fluid power industry.