India’s Team IIT-BHU wins at Shell Eco-Marathon 2019 in Malaysia

Team Averera from the Indian Institute of Technology - Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU) has bagged the second position in the battery electric prototype category at the recently concluded Shell Eco-Marathon 2019 in Malaysia. 

Competing against 108 teams participating across Asia, the team stood second in the battery electric prototype category that had 53 participating teams. Team Averera also won the Vehicle Design (Prototype) Award and a cash prize of US$ 3,000 for their innovative design research and execution, where they captured the challenges faced, and worked on root cause analysis with simulation and arrived at the optimum solution with material selection and design refinement.

A part of the four-day annual event that showcases innovative energy ideas, Shell Eco-Marathon Asia 2019 challenged students to design and build ultra-energy-efficient cars and then put them to test in the competition. All the six student teams in the Indian contingent passed a detailed technical inspection before they were allowed onto the track to see how far they could go on the least amount of fuel. Team Averera clocked 465 kilometres on 1 kilowatt energy per hour in the Battery Electric prototype category. Of the six teams, five participated in the battery electric category and one competed in the gasoline category.

Team Averera said: “We are delighted to be the first ever Indian team to win these accolades at Make the Future Live Malaysia. We see this victory as a culmination of all our hard work and perseverance. We have seen continued improvement over years of participation at Shell Eco-marathon Asia thanks to the combined efforts of our Director IIT (BHU) Varanasi, Coordinator (CERD), seniors, teachers and Shell. Participating at the Shell Eco-Marathon has been an immensely enriching experience where we got to learn from the brightest young minds from across the region.”

Eco-friendly warriors
Make the Future Live Malaysia celebrated the achievements of a regionally diverse crowd of students from 18 countries across Asia and the Middle East. The event was inaugurated on April 29 at the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia, with a flag-off ceremony led by Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysian Minister for Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC), and Iain Lo, chairman of Shell Malaysia. The competition, the first night race in the history of Shell Eco-marathon globally, was a new experience for both the spectators and participants.

Now in its 10th year, the Asian edition of Shell Eco-marathon returned to where it was first held, bringing together over 100 student teams to test which car would go the farthest using the least amount of energy. The four-day festival saw new efficiency records set by the student teams competing in either of two categories of the competition: Prototype (futuristic and highly aerodynamic vehicles) or UrbanConcept (vehicles that resemble today’s cars).

2019 saw even participation in the vehicle types with 55 student teams participating in the Urban Concept category and 53 student teams competing in the Prototype category. Students competed in three different sub-categories based on their selected energy source: Internal Combustion Engine (ICE): gasoline, diesel, ethanol (biofuel); hydrogen fuel cell; and battery electric power.

The competition concluded last Thursday at the Shell Eco-marathon Drivers’ World Championship Qualifier where the best Urban Concept teams in the region will compete for their place in the Drivers’ World Championship in London in July in an exciting head-to-head race to find the most energy-efficient driver. Nanyang E Drive from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore beat other top Urban Concept cars in a breathtaking race to cross the finish line without running out of their limited allocation of energy. ITS Team 5 from Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember in Indonesia and team LH – EST from Lac Hong University in Vietnam took second and third place, respectively.

Norman Koch, General Manager, Make the Future Live, said: “The Drivers’ World Championship incorporates both the fuel efficiency of the vehicle with the technique and skills of the driver. This time it is a strategy of handling the vehicles while simultaneously managing fuel efficiency. We saw amazing action and my congratulations go to all the teams for all their achievements.”

In addition, a small number of Shell Eco-marathon student teams also took part in the development of a potential global category for the future. The Shell Eco-marathon UrbanConcept Autonomous Category continues to be developed with students, academics and businesses to build a category that can provide a challenging competitive arena for students to test their ideas and skills.

In Asia, teams got the opportunity to exhibit their Urban Concept car in autonomous mode at Make the Future Live Malaysia. The drivers demonstrated their car moving along a stretch of track without their hands or feet controlling the vehicle.

Photographs courtesy: AP Images for Shell (Edwin Koo, Bazuki Muhammad, Andy Phe)