Shell Oil Company has announced its sixth annual Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2012 open for registration to students across North and South America.
Photo: Shell Eco-marathon’s photostream on Flickr
Shell Eco-marathon is held globally. The American challenge will take place in Houston, the energy capital of the world from March 29 through April 1, 2012.
The mileage challenge is aimed to inspire student innovation and develop future technologies that represent game-changing fuel efficiency and transportation performance. The premises for the challenge are recent government announcements such as the U.S. fuel standard for cars and light trucks, which will bring fuel efficiency to 54.6 miles per gallon by 2025. To help complete the task and reduce future CO2 emissions, Shell Eco-marathon challenges participants to design, build, and test vehicles to go the farthest distance using the least amount of energy.
There are two classes in Shell Eco-marathon: ‘Prototype’ and ‘UrbanConcept’. ‘Prototype’ class encourages student teams to enter futuristic prototypes—streamlined vehicles focused on maximizing fuel efficiency through innovative design elements, such as drag reduction. The ‘UrbanConcept’ class is aimed at meeting the real-life needs of drivers and focuses on fuel-efficient vehicles. these vehicles are closer in appearance to the higher-mileage cars seen on roads today.
«With the recent increase in CAFE standards, Shell Eco-marathon highlights what future generations can help to achieve,» said Mark Singer, Global Project Manager. «As energy demand increases globally, the challenge continues to be a timely and relevant project for students to help find solutions that positively impact how we use and think about energy.»
Teams can get more information on all 2012 events across the globe and sign-up here.
Last year’s Shell Eco-marathon Americas’ winner in the Prototype class, Universite Laval from Quebec, Canada, achieved 2,564 miles per gallon, beating their performance from the year before by 77 mpg. And in the UrbanConcept class, the team from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La. won with the best run of 646.7 mpg.