2,487.5 MPG Achieved at 2010 Shell Eco-Marathon Americas
29 March 2010
For the second year in a row, the student team from Laval University in Quebec, Canada took home the grand prize at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas, taking top place in the 2010 competition with 2,487.5 miles per gallon US (0.095 L/100km) in the “Prototype” category. And in the “UrbanConcept” category, the team from Mater Dei High School in Evansville, Indiana took the grand prize for the second year in a row by achieving 437.2 mpg US (0.538 L/100km).
| The winning Université Laval vehicle. Click to enlarge. |
The challenge kicked off on Saturday, 27 March with 48 vehicles testing on the Houston, Texas street course. This year’s challenge brought together a number of returning teams determined to beat the winning 2,757.1 mpg achieved by Laval University in 2009, combined with a number of new teams adding fresh innovation and vehicle designs to the competition.
Student teams were invited to participate in either the Prototype or UrbanConcept categories. For the Prototype category, teams entered futuristic prototypes—streamlined vehicles focused on maximizing fuel efficiency through innovative design elements, such as drag reduction. For the UrbanConcept category, teams entered more roadworthy fuel-efficient vehicles. Aimed at meeting the real-life needs of drivers, these vehicles are closer in appearance to the cars seen on roads today. For both categories, teams can use any conventionally available energy source, including fuels such as diesel, gasoline and liquid petroleum gas (LPG), as well as alternative fuels such as hydrogen, biomass and solar.
The 2010 Shell Eco-marathon Americas roster contained 42 teams from 9 high schools and 28 universities from across the Americas. Additionally, one guest team from Italy joined the roster with their Prototype vehicle.
The Prototype entries included 28 vehicles powered by combustion engines, five by fuel cell/hydrogen technology, two by solar power, and two by diesel fuel. The UrbanConcept entries included six vehicles powered by combustion engines, two by diesel fuel, one by fuel cell/hydrogen and one by solar power.
I have invented a way to make vehicles lighter and safer at the same time. In a few weeks, I will be granted a US patent.
The patent application document has a link on my website- www.safersmallcars.com
Government mpg requirements (CAFE) will force cars to become lighter since weight is a big factor in mpg.
Lighter cars are probably going to be smaller cars because there is no cost effective alternative to steel.
The easiest way to get weight down is to remove steel.
Removing steel to lighten cars is a bad idea because steel is an excellent absorber of collision energy.
The collision death rate of micro vehicles is double that of mid size vehicles.
The American public is going to be very angry in a few years when they learn that very few large, safer cars will be available for purchase.
Please help me promote my invention.
Posted by: shopa | 29 March 2010 at 07:07 AM
This just goes to show that tremendous energy efficiency can be obtained if you can keep the ICE engine operating in the "sweet spots" of the BSFC Map. this is what these contestants in this contest are doing, manually.
Just incidentally the ICE generator of the Series type of EREV, can be designed to do this almost automatically, throughout the entire time it is running.
It will be interesting to see what the mileage in "Charge Sustaining" mode of the VOLT will be, which is when engine and generator will be running. The similar Cruze 1.4 liter turbo charged engine, is now claimed capable of delivering 40 mpg overall, when it is operated everywhere on the BSFC map, including terrible spots on the BSFC map.
Posted by: Stan Peterson | 29 March 2010 at 12:02 PM