Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2011 gathers the region’s brightest youths

>> Vietnamese students head the Shell eco-marathon Asia

Vehicles come in an assortment of shapes, colors and sizes, from conventional looking vehicles toout-of-the-box creations, expressing the young generation’s creativity and innovativeness.

Students will put these vehicles to the test in two categories: “Prototype” - futuristic, streamlined vehicles focused on maximising fuel-efficiency through innovative design elements - and “UrbanConcept”, more conventional four-wheel fuel-efficient vehicles suited to the needs of today’s drivers.

For both categories, teams entered their vehicles in two classes - electric mobility and internal combustion.  Under the electric mobility class – a new category introduced this year - vehicles can use any of these sources of energy: hydrogen fuel cells, solar and “plug-in” battery. In the internal combustion class, teams may use fuels such as gasoline, diesel, gas to liquids (GTL) and FAME.

A diverse batch of students has overcome the challenges of transporting their vehicles to get to SIC, eager to beat last year’s record set by a team from Thailand of 1,521.9 kilometres on a litre of fuel, which would be enough to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok.

Participants from Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam and Chinese Taipei will be competing for the first time, joining teams from other countries who took part in the inaugural run of Shell Eco-marathon Asia in 2010.

While other teams have the advantage of experience, the newcomers matched this with intensive preparation, research and training.

The first-ever all-girl team in the competition from India stands out from among the predominantly male participants. Team Vidyottama from Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology feel they have equal chances of winning as their male counterparts.

For Thai team P.K. Evolution, no challenge is too great to stop them from joining the quest for fuel- efficiency. The team’s graphic designer Peerawat “Guy” Junpatch is wheelchair-bound and inspires his teammates with his positive outlook.

This is the second year of the Asian edition of Shell Eco-marathon. The event has been running in Europe since 1985 and the United States since 2007, and was held for the first time in Asia at Sepang last year. Bringing the competition to Asia has made the programme a truly global initiative for Shell.

The event will be officially flagged off at 3.00 pm on Friday 8 July at Sepang International Circuit by Peter Voser, Royal Dutch Shell’s CEO. The closing and prize giving will be held the following day.