Kuala Lumpur, 1 May 2009 – Shell Malaysia today announced the participation of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in the Shell Eco-Marathon Europe, an annual fuel-efficiency challenge to determine which vehicle can travel the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel. Through UTM, Malaysia will make its debut in this global event that encourages students to solve the energy challenges of the future.
Shell Malaysia Chairman, Dato’ Saw Choo Boon said: “The Shell Eco-Marathon is a valuable experience that will encourage students to showcase their creativity and innovativeness in meeting the energy challenge, and gain practical experience for the future.”
“We hope the participation by UTM will inspire other Malaysian student teams to take up the challenge especially when the event is held here in Kuala Lumpur next year,” Dato’ Saw added, in reference to an announcement last December that Shell Malaysia will host the inaugural Shell Eco-marathon Asia at the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur in July 2010.
Shell believes that Asia is ready to take on this challenge alongside the student teams in Europe and the Americas as there is tremendous capability and talent here. Holding the Shell Eco-marathon in Asia will enable more student teams in the region to participate.
The keen interest from the UTM team together with assistance from Shell Malaysia enabled UTM to become the first Malaysian team to enter the Shell Eco-Marathon Europe. The challenge will be held in Germany from 7-9 May at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, near Berlin where UTM will compete against more than 200 teams in their solar-powered vehicle.
“It is indeed a great privilege for UTM to represent our country and be the first Malaysian team to enter the Shell Eco-Marathon. I believe there are many useful lessons to take home from this experience, even at the onset when the team decided to participate in this challenge,” said Professor Hamdani Saidi, who has been providing encouragement and support as advisor to the team and the Director for Fuel Cell Vehicle Team.
Having gained prior experience in other projects that involved building environment-friendly alternative fuel vehicles, coming up with a concept for the challenge was easy for the UTM team.
Designed to push the limits of fuel efficiency, the Shell Eco-Marathon rules and regulations further challenged the UTM team into thinking about better fuel-efficiency to create the best fuel-saving vehicle for the event. This has led the team to modify its solar bicycle and in three weeks, turned it into a three-wheel solar-powered vehicle for the challenge.
About Shell Eco-Marathon
The Shell Eco-Marathon is about distance, not speed. The competition challenges student teams to design and build energy efficient vehicles that travel the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel.
Open to high schools, colleges, universities and technical institutes, the programme challenges student teams to put their innovations to the test in two vehicle categories: “Prototype,” futuristic, streamlined vehicles focused on maximizing fuel efficiency through innovative design elements, and “Urban Concept,” focused on more “roadworthy” fuel-efficient vehicles.
For both categories, teams can use any of the following fuels to power their vehicles: conventional fuels such as diesel, gasoline and LPG or alternative fuels such as fuel cells/ hydrogen, bio-fuel, solar and Gas-to-liquid (GTL).
In the 2008 edition of the Shell Eco-marathon Europe, the Dutch team from the De Haagse Hogeschool won the urban concept category with 848 km/l in their hydrogen-powered vehicle while Lyceé La Joliverie from France won the prototype category travelling 3,382 km/l with their gasoline-powered vehicle.
Shell has been running the Shell Eco-Marathon in Europe for nearly 25 years, where the event has grown to include more than 200 teams, thousands of spectators and widespread media attention. In 2007, the event was brought to the Americas with much success. Bringing the competition to Asia helps make this programme a true global initiative for Shell.
Malaysia will host the annual Shell Eco-Marathon Asia from 2010 till 2012. Thereafter it will be brought to another Asian country to host for the subsequent three (3) years.
For the inaugural Shell Eco-marathon Asia, the first 10 student teams from Asia to register and compete at the race in July 2010 will be eligible to receive USD1,000 per team. Terms and conditions apply. For more information: www.shell.com/eco-marathon or e-mail Eco-Marathon-Asia@shell.com.
ENQUIRIES:
For further editorial information, please contact Shell Malaysia Media Relations: Stephanie Khoo at tel: 603 – 2091 2115, email: stephanie.khoo@shell.com
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