Shell's Eco Marathon student contest debuts in India

Global lubricant major Shell is bringing its marquee event Shell Eco Marathon (SEM) to India for the first time. The SEM Challenger will be part of Shell’s ‘Make the Future India’ program to be held in Chennai between December 6-9, 2018. Shell’s Make the Future is a global platform for conversation, collaboration and innovation around the world’s energy challenges.

Shell Eco Marathon, which was first inaugurated in 1939, is the world’s longest-running student competition wherein engineering students are challenged to design, build and test fuel-efficient cars. Indian teams have been participating since 2010 but this is the first time the competition will be held on home ground.

The Shell Eco Marathon, which is hosted in many countries, aims to provide an opportunity for multiple stakeholders including students, entrepreneurs, businesses, governments and the public to experience, test and contribute energy saving ideas. The India tracks will showcase demos for cleaner energy solutions; discussions on powering India’s progress – innovations, challenges and opportunities – as well as partnerships for success. 

Unique opportunity
With the competition, student teams get an opportunity to test and fine-tune their vehicle for Shell Eco-Marathon Asia 2019. For first-timers, it also becomes a good platform to showcase their skill sets, be part of a world-class experience and test drive their vehicles with fellow competitors on a professional circuit. Student teams that take to the track will be evaluated on the criteria of who goes farthest on the least amount of fuel.

There has been a growing demand from colleges to bring the fuel-efficiency competition to India and this will allow widespread participation from students across the country. In the past, Indian students have showcased many innovative and energy efficient models and prototypes that has also caught attention of industry and government. Team Averera from IIT BHU created a lightweight, three-wheeled, electric vehicle with customised motor controller, that clocked 350km on a single litre of fuel. The team from Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka created the prototype with a 100cc motorcycle engine that went 100 kilometres on a single litre of fuel, while team BITS Pilani worked on a car that would literally run on garbage, using ethanol to drive its way into the fuel-efficiency competition.

Commenting on the same, Nitin Prasad, chairman, Shell Companies in India, said, “We have seen the quality, quantity, ingenuity and interest of the teams only rise over the past few years. This was one of the motivations behind getting our global competition to India so that more teams are able to participate and leverage this unique platform. At Shell, we believe that these bright young minds have the potential to truly impact the future of sustainability and I am positive that through our people, partnerships and innovations, we will be able to provide more and cleaner energy solutions for a better tomorrow.”

India has been part of SEM for the last eight years. Since last year, Shell has enhanced its scope of search for future tech innovation in clean energy and future transport alongside fuel efficiency and brought them under one umbrella – Make the Future. All vehicles will be subject to the regulations of the Shell Eco-marathon which can be accessed at the link

Applications for Shell Eco Marathon are open from June 11 to August 28, 2018. To register, click here