Futuristic cars to compete for fuel efficiency at Shell Eco-marathon

Home
Industry News
Futuristic cars to compete for fuel efficiency at Shell Eco-marathon

Futuristic cars to compete for fuel efficiency at Shell Eco-marathon

Industry News
Jun 14,18

This is the first time that the company will bring SEM to India. SEM will challenge student teams around the world to design, build, test and drive ultra-energy-efficient vehicles

Futuristic cars to compete for fuel efficiency at Shell Eco-marathon

New Delhi, June 14, 2018

Shell, one of the leading diversified global oil companies, is bringing its marquee event Shell Eco - marathon (SEM) to India for the first time. The SEM Challenger will be part of Make the Future India to be held in Chennai from December 6-9, 2018. Shell’s Make the Future is a global platform for conversation, collaboration and innovation around the world’s energy challenges. The applications for SEM are open from June 11, 2018 to August 28, 2018

SEM, which was first inaugurated in 1939, is the world’s longest-running student competition wherein engineering students are challenged to design, build and test fuel-efficient cars. Indian teams have been partcipating since 2010 but this is the first time the competition will be held on home ground.

With events hosted in countries around the globe, Shell aims to provide an opportunity for multiple stakeholders: including students, entrepreneurs, businesses, governments and the public, to experience, test and contribute bright energy ideas. The India tracks will showcase demo for cleaner energy solutions; discussions on powering India’s progress - innovations, challenges and opportunities as well as partnerships for success. This is also a great opportunity for student teams to test and fine tune their vehicle for the Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2019. For first timers, this would be a great platform to showcase their skill, be part of a world-class experience and test drive their vehicles with fellow competitors on a professional circuit. Student teams that take to the track will be evaluated on the criteria of who goes farthest on the least amount of fuel.

There has been a growing demand from colleges to bring the fuel-efficiency competition to India and this will allow widespread participation from students across the country. In the past, Indian students have showcased many innovative and energy efficient models and prototypes that has also caught attention of industry and government. Team Averera from IIT BHU created a light weight three-wheeled electric vehicle with customised motor controller, that clocked a mileage of 350 kms on a single litre of fuel. The ingenious team from Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, Karnataka created the prototype with a 100cc motorcycle engine that clocked a mileage of 100+ kmpl. while team BITS Pilani worked on a car that would literally, run on garbage, using ethanol to drive its way into the fuel-efficiency competition.

Commenting on the same, Nitin Prasad, Chairman, Shell Companies in India, said, “We have seen the quality, quantity, ingenuity and interest of the teams only rise over the past few years. This was one of the motivations behind getting our global competition to India so that more teams are able to participate and leverage this unique platform. At Shell, we believe that these bright young minds have the potential to truly impact the future of sustainability and I am positive that through our people, partnerships and innovations, we will be able to provide more and cleaner energy solutions for a better tomorrow.”

India has been part of SEM for the last eight years. Since last year, Shell has enhanced its scope of search for future tech innovation in clean energy and future transport alongside fuel efficiency and brought them under one umbrella – Make the Future.