Country | International Shell Eco-marathon Americas: Sonoma, California [1] Shell Eco-marathon Asia: Singapore Shell Eco-marathon Europe: London, England |
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Inaugural season | 1939 |
Official website | www |
Shell Eco-marathon is a world-wide energy efficiency competition sponsored by Shell. Participants build automotive vehicles to achieve the highest possible fuel efficiency. There are two vehicle classes within Shell Eco-marathon: Prototype and UrbanConcept. There are three energy categories within Shell Eco-marathon: battery-electric, hydrogen fuel cell, and internal combustion engine (gasoline, ethanol, or diesel). Prizes are awarded separately for each vehicle class and energy category. The pinnacle of the competition is the Shell Eco-marathon Drivers' World Championship, where the most energy-efficient UrbanConcept vehicles compete in a race with a limited amount of energy.
Shell Eco-marathon competitions are held around the world with nine events as of 2018. The 2018 competition season includes events held in Singapore, California, Paris, London, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, India, and China. Participants are students from various academic backgrounds including university teams such as past finalists University of British Columbia, [2] Duke University, [3] University of Toronto, [4] and University of California, Los Angeles. [5]
In 2018, over 5,000 students from over 700 universities in 52 countries participated in Shell Eco-marathon. The digital reach of Shell Eco-marathon is approximately several million.
In 1939, a group of Shell scientists based in a research laboratory in Wood River, Illinois, USA, had a friendly bet to see who could drive their own car furthest on one gallon of fuel. The winner managed a fuel economy of 49.73 mpg ‑ US (4.730 L/100 km ; 59.72 mpg ‑ imp ). [6] A repeat of the challenge yielded dramatically improved results over the years:
During the 1980s, a Canadian version of the competition was called the 'Shell Fuelathon', with competitions in Oakville, Ontario Canada. [8] [9] [10] [11]
The current record is 12,665 mpg‑US (0.018572 L/100 km; 15,210 mpg‑imp), set in 2005 by the PAC-Car II. The world record in Diesel efficiency was achieved by a team from the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia (Politechnical University of Valencia, Spain) in 2010 with 1396.8 kilometres per litre. In contrast, the most efficient production Diesel passenger cars achieve 60 mpg‑US (4 L/100 km; 72 mpg‑imp), and some high-powered sports cars achieve as little as 8 mpg‑US (29 L/100 km; 10 mpg‑imp). [12]
The current European Shell Eco-marathon [13] record for a combustion engine entry was set in 2004 by the team from Lycée La Joliverie (France) at 3,410 km on the equivalent of a single litre of fuel. Prototype vehicles using fuel cells are capable of greater energy efficiency. In 2005, a hydrogen-powered vehicle built by Swiss team ETH Zurich achieved a projected 3,836 km on the equivalent of a single litre of fuel. This is equivalent to the distance between Paris and Moscow. In 2013, ethanol efficiency world record was set by Toulouse Ingenerie Multidisciplinarie with 3100 km of a single litre of ethanol. This is equivalent to the distance between Toulouse and Istanbul.
The Eco-Marathon has different classes of competition, according to the energy source used: Fuel cells, solar cells, gasoline, Diesel fuel and LPG. During the competition, cars must attain an average speed of at least 15 mph (23 km/h) over a distance of 10 miles (16 km). The course is typically a motor racing track or closed-off city streets. The fuel is strictly measured out for each entrant at the start and end of the course. The difference is used to calculate the vehicle's average fuel consumption. Solar-powered vehicles are not eligible for the grand prize for fuel efficiency.
In 2017, more than 100 student teams from many countries across the Americas competed in the Shell-Eco Marathon Americas to a crowd of over 20,000 throughout the competitions at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan. [14]
The top performing vehicles are purpose designed for high efficiency. Some vehicles use a coast and burn technique whereby they briefly accelerate from 10 to 20 mph (from 16 to 32 km/h) and then switch the engine off and coast until the speed drops back down to 10 mph (16 km/h). This process is repeated resulting in average speed of 15 mph for the course. Typically the vehicles have:
The vehicles are highly specialized and optimized for the event and are not intended for everyday use. The designs represent what can be achieved with current technology and offer a glimpse into the future of car design based on minimal environmental impact in a world with reduced oil reserves. The work of the participants can be used to show ways manufacturers could redesign their products.[ citation needed ]
Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, which in turn may vary per application, and this spectrum of variance is often illustrated as a continuous energy profile. Non-transportation applications, such as industry, benefit from increased fuel efficiency, especially fossil fuel power plants or industries dealing with combustion, such as ammonia production during the Haber process.
The Honda Insight is a hybrid electric vehicle that is manufactured and marketed by Honda. Its first generation was a two-door, two passenger liftback (1999–2006) and in its second generation was a four-door, five passenger liftback (2009–2014). In its third generation, it became a four-door sedan (2018–2022). It was Honda's first model with Integrated Motor Assist system and the most fuel efficient gasoline-powered car available in the U.S. without plug-in capability for the length of its production run.
The Volkswagen XL1 is a two-person limited production diesel-powered plug-in hybrid produced by Volkswagen. The XL1 car was designed to be able to travel 100 km on 1 litre of diesel, with a fully charged battery, while being both roadworthy and practical. Without using electric, the XL is able to travel 100 km on 2 litres of diesel. To achieve such economy, it was produced with lightweight materials, a streamlined body and an engine and transmission designed and tuned for economy. The concept car was modified first in 2009 as the L1 and again in 2011 as the XL1.
The Ford Fusion Hybrid is a gasoline-electric hybrid powered version of the mid-sized Ford Fusion sedan manufactured and marketed by Ford, which had two generations. A plug-in hybrid version, the Ford Fusion Energi, was released in the U.S. in February 2013. The last model year for all Ford Fusions was 2020.
The Ford C-Max is a car produced by the Ford Motor Company from 2003 to 2019. It has a five-door compact multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) design. The Ford Grand C-Max has a longer wheelbase.
Gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) or gasoline-equivalent gallon (GEG) is the amount of an alternative fuel it takes to equal the energy content of one liquid gallon of gasoline. GGE allows consumers to compare the energy content of competing fuels against a commonly known fuel, namely gasoline.
The SAE Supermileage Competition is a yearly fuel efficiency competition held at the Eaton Corporation proving grounds located in Marshall, Michigan, United States. The Society of Automotive Engineers is the primary sponsor. Around 30 teams compete to build the vehicle that uses the least amount of gas to go a specified distance. Teams are required to use a one cylinder lawnmower engine provided by Briggs & Stratton, but significant modification is allowed. There are two divisions, Collegiate and High School.
The fuel economy of an automobile relates to the distance traveled by a vehicle and the amount of fuel consumed. Consumption can be expressed in terms of the volume of fuel to travel a distance, or the distance traveled per unit volume of fuel consumed. Since fuel consumption of vehicles is a significant factor in air pollution, and since the importation of motor fuel can be a large part of a nation's foreign trade, many countries impose requirements for fuel economy.
The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles was a co-operative research program between the US government and the three major domestic auto corporations that was aimed at bringing extremely fuel-efficient (up to 80 mpg‑US vehicles to market by 2003.
The Dodge Intrepid ESX prototype cars are the result of the 1993 response by the Chrysler Corporation to a challenge by U.S. President Bill Clinton to produce a vehicle which was capable of meeting the demands of the modern consumer, while still achieving an unprecedented 80 miles per US gallon overall in fuel economy. The PNGV - Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles project was aimed at The Big Three American car manufacturers.
Pac-Car II was developed as a student project at ETH Zürich. Based on a group of students and an experienced team leader, the goal was to build a vehicle that uses as little fuel as possible. By using hydrogen fuel-cell, developed at ETH/PSI, as power source, pure water is the car's only emission. Clean mobility completed therefore the educational and energy saving aspects of the project.
The BMW Hydrogen 7 is a limited production hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicle built from 2005–2007 by German automobile manufacturer BMW. The car is based on BMW’s traditional petrol-powered BMW 7 Series (E65) line of vehicles, and more specifically the 760Li. It uses the same 6-litre V-12 motor as does the 760i and 760Li; however, it has been modified to also allow for the combustion of hydrogen as well as petrol, making it a bivalent engine.
Eco-Runner Team Delft is a Delft University of Technology student team, aiming to promote a sustainable future by building the world's most efficient hydrogen-powered car. At the end of the year, the team participates in the Shell Eco-marathon competition in order to assess the efficiency of the vehicle. Eco-Runner Team Delft won the competition in 2015 and 2022. In the competition there are two vehicle classes: Prototype and UrbanConcept. For years Eco-Runner Team Delft participated in the Shell Eco-marathon Prototype class competition where the goal is to cover a certain distance with the least amount of hydrogen. In the year 2019–2020, the team has decided to compete in a different competition; the Urban Concept class. This challenge offers the team the opportunity to design and build an efficient hydrogen-powered vehicle that is closer in appearance to modern city cars.
The energy efficiency in transport is the useful travelled distance, of passengers, goods or any type of load; divided by the total energy put into the transport propulsion means. The energy input might be rendered in several different types depending on the type of propulsion, and normally such energy is presented in liquid fuels, electrical energy or food energy. The energy efficiency is also occasionally known as energy intensity. The inverse of the energy efficiency in transport is the energy consumption in transport.
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