Thai Student Team has won the Shell Eco-Marathon fuel saving vehicle competition

The Thai Student Team from Dhurakij Pundit University won the competition and creating a new record in the Prototype category by driving a distance of 2,213 kms using the equivalent amount of energy of 1 litre of fuel. To cap a successful day for Thailand the – ATE-1 team, last year’s winner, came second with a distance of 1,608 kms while Hyogo Prefectural Tajima Technical Institute from Japan came third with a distance of 1,125 kms.

The Shell Eco-marathon challenges high school and college student teams from around the world to design, build and test energy efficient vehicles. The winners are the teams that go the farthest distance using the least amount of energy. Shell Eco-marathon kicked off in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 6-9, 2011 which is the second year the competition has been held in Asia. There were 17 Thai team taking part in the competition amongst 93 teams from 12 countries.

Mr. Amornpot Serpwong, head of the team and driver of Dhurakij Pundit University said that with the technique of driving, choosing E 100 as fuel and the streamlined design of the vehicle which reduces drag helped bring victory to the team.

Mrs. Pissawan Achanpornkul, country chairperson of Shell Company of Thailand said that Shell is so proud that the Thai teams have made a name for Thailand two years in a row “We have seen great ideas in construction and designing smart vehicles, innovation in using energy, good fuel and good driving all of which help to use energy to its full potential.”

Winners in the other categories included Singapore’s NP-Distanza Proto, from the Ngee Ann Polytechnic, also set a new record of 84.9km/kWh with a prototype hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Another highlight of the E-mobility class – introduced this year – was the Malaysian team from the UTM International Campus, clean vehicle team, with 390.4 km/kWh.

In the Urban Concept Category, Indonesian Team Mesin ITS4’s internal combustion entry, running on FAME (fatty acid methyl ester), garnered the best efficiency performance with a distance of 149.8 kilometres/litre.

Off the track students were also recognized in aspects of Safety, Technical Innovation and Communications and Design with Singapore’s Nanyang Technical University receiving the award for Safety, Indonesia’s Universitas Gadjah Mada for Technical Innovation and Institut Teknologi Bandung Team Rakata for Communications; and National University of Singapore Urban Concept for Design. While first-timer National Kaoshiung University of Applied Sciences from Chinese Taipei bagged the People’s Choice Award.