Interest in more fuel efficient cars is growing, partly driven by the European Commission’s demand that new cars from Europe should on average produce no more than 130 grammes of CO2 per kilometre by 2012.  At car shows like the Geneva Motor Show or the Sexy Green Car Show (Eden, UK), new fuel efficient models are presented using hybrid engines or alternative fuels.

At the Shell Eco-marathon, which was organised for the 23rd time this year, unbelievable fuel efficiencies are achieved. Prototype cars can get as far as 3,000 kilometres on just 1 litre of fuel. The winning team from St. Joseph La Joliverie booked 3,039 km. In second place was ESTACA (France) who booked 2,701 km, and Tampere University of Technology (Finland) came in third with 2,137 km. The winning fuel cell powered prototypes that were running on hydrogen booked 2,797 km (Ecole Polytechnique Nantes, France), 2,716 km (Hochschule Offenburg, Germany) and 2,552 km (Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany) on the hydrogen equivalent of 1 litre of petrol.

Hydrogen powered HydroCruisers UrbanConcept car in the race (Team Netherlands) - Photo: Fred Ernst

To make the race more realistic, in 2003 the organisation introduced the category UrbanConcept for vehicles that are similar to normal urban cars and more traditional in design than the experimental prototypes. UrbanConcept cars must be fit for actual road use with four wheels, a steering wheel, head and tail lights, a driver’s seat, a brake pedal and working doors. 40 Teams joined the competition in the UrbanConcept class (up from 26 last year). The race consists of three legs of 14 laps each at 1.62 kilometres per lap, totalling 22.7 km per leg. There are three mandatory stops included and the average speed must be 25 km/hr.

Under these conditions, the best results were booked by the Danish Technical University (DTU Roadrunners) who achieved 306 kilometres on 1 litre of fuel with an internal combustion engine. The Haagse Hogeschoool team (Netherlands) booked 557 kilometres on the equivalent of 1 litre of fuel with a fuel cell powered electric car. “We believe hydrogen will be one of the fuels of the future,” said Christianne Thomas, team leader from the Haagse Hogeschool’s team Hydro Cruisers. “We want to see what we can get out of it and if we can make a difference for the future.”

According to the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) a normal urban vehicle consumes about 4.6 litres of fuel per 100 km. The top ten of UrbanConcept cars in the race needs only a tenth of that: 0.45 litre / 100 km. whereas a normal city car emits 110 grammes of CO2 per kilometre, the UrbanConcept cars emit on average only 11 grammes CO2 per kilometre.

“The UrbanConcept category enables us to create a vehicle that is similar to normal production cars and provides an opportunity to freely design future modes of transport,” said Daniele Schille, UrbanConcept project manager from Østhold University, Norway (27th place in 2007).

Photo: Hydrogen powered HydroCruisers UrbanConcept car in the race (Team Netherlands)

More information:

European Shell Eco-marathon homepage