Shell Eco-marathon comes to Asia in 2010

In July 2010, the Shell Eco-marathon will come to Asia with Malaysia being the first country in the region to host the event. The Eco-marathon is a fuel efficiency challenge programme encouraging technology and innovation among today’s youth. It serves as an excellent platform for students to showcase their creativity and innovativeness in meeting the energy challenge, and gain practical experience for the future. Shell has been running the Shell Eco-marathon in Europe for nearly 25 years. In 2007, the event was brought to the Americas. Having tremendous capability and talent, Asia is ready to take on the same challenge. Malaysia will host the Asian programme for 3 consecutive years from 2010, thereafter it will be brought to another Asian country for the subsequent 3 years.

Bringing energy into the future

The Shell Eco-marathon is an educational project that challenges student teams to design and build the most energy-efficient vehicle to compete against other teams’ vehicles. The winner is the vehicle that travels the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel. Student teams work together to build prototype vehicles with three or four wheels, using conventional fuels, alternative fuels or energy sources such as hydrogen and solar. The goal of the project is not to break speed records or be the first to finish; it is to consume as little fuel as possible over a set distance.

Types of vehicles

Futuristic prototypes: streamlined vehicles where the only design consideration is reducing drag and maximising efficiency. Urban Concept vehicles: designed to meet the needs of today’s drivers in a more realistic city/urban environment. As long as teams adhere to safety rules, the design of their vehicles is limited only by their imagination.

Fuels

Teams have a choice of any of the following fuels to power their vehicles: conventional fuels such as diesel, gasoline and LPG or alternative fuels such as fuel cells/hydrogen, bio-fuel, solar and Gas to Liquids (GTL). The vehicles may use one of the following fuel or energy types: Shell Unleaded 95 (EU) / Shell Plus 89 (US) Petrol/Gasoline Shell Diesel Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Shell Gas to Liquids (100% GTL) Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (100% FAME) Ethanol E100 (100% Ethanol) Hydrogen Solar