Imagine a vehicle which can achieve in excess of 2,500 miles per gallon-sounds absurd right? Well that’s the mpg achieved by the winner of this year’s Shell EcoMarathon Americas.
For the third year in a row, the team from Université Laval in Quebec, Canada took home the Internal Combustion First Prize with an astonishing best run of 2,564.8 miles per gallon in the Prototype class. That beat their record from last year of 2,487.5 miles per gallon.
The fifth annual event challenged teams of science, engineering and technology students from across the Americas to design, build energy efficient vehicles capable of travelling more than 3,000 miles on the equivalent of one litre of fuel. This year, 62 teams participated.
Entrants are placed in two separate categories, prototype and concept. For the Prototype category, teams entered futuristic prototypes – streamlined vehicles focused on maximizing fuel efficiency through innovative design elements, such as drag reduction.
For the UrbanConcept category, teams entered more "roadworthy" fuel-efficient vehicles. Aimed at meeting the real-life needs of drivers, these vehicles are closer in appearance to the cars seen on roads today. For both categories, the teams are split into different fuel types, with entrants able to use any conventionally energy source – including fuels such as diesel, gasoline and liquid petroleum gas (LPG), as well as alternative fuels such as hydrogen, biomass and solar.
For this year, Shell fully introduced a new electric mobility, or e-mobility group within the two categories. Cars running on electric engines could use hydrogen, solar or ‘plug-in’ battery technologies as energy sources. Vehicles taking part in the new category were equipped with a joulemetre to measure how much electricity they use over a set distance. As with all the entrants in the EcoMarathon’s groups-they are judged on energy use-with the winners being the ones that use the least.
With a best run of 646.7 mpg, the team from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, LA, won in the UrbanConcept category for their vehicle, the Roadster.
A European Shell EcoMarathon takes place in May, to find out more, visit: http://www.shell.com/home/content/ecomarathon/europe/
