Shell Oil, a global energy and petrochemical company, has announced that the registration for the seventh annual Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2013 is open.
The event is an annual global program conducted by Shell in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The innovation competition for students in high school and colleges challenges them to design, build and test energy-efficient vehicles. It is set to take place from April 5 to 7 in Houston. Over 30 teams, which include 16 new teams, have pre-registered for the challenge.
The students will have to design vehicles that travel the farthest distance while using the least amount of fuel. In the Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2013 challenge, the teams will have to try and build a vehicle that demonstrates fuel efficiency of more than 2,188.6 mpg.
In the 2012 challenge, the Mater Dei High School team from Evansville won the event with a prototype gasoline vehicle that demonstrated a fuel efficiency of 2,188.6 mpg. Named as "9th Gen," the vehicle beat 48 other competitors. This year they intend to remake their UrbanConcept car and try to improve their car further. Universite Laval’s Louis-David Coulombe stated that their team will be trying to achieve their goal of 2,933 mpg this year.
The Shell Eco-marathon consists of UrbanConcept and Prototype classes. "Roadworthy" fuel-efficient vehicles are the aim of the UrbanConcept class, while futuristic prototypes are the target of the Prototype class challenge. Various official energy sources, which include gasoline, diesel, battery, FAME, ethanol and hydrogen, are allowed.
Further details about the competition are available at the Shell Eco-marathon website.
Source: www.shell.com/