Students Build Car With Mileage Of 1,153 Km/l — Perfect For India?

Students from Universite Laval, in Quebec, have built a prototype petrol-powered car with 1,153km/l mileage.

Updated: Tuesday, May 23, 2017, 18:13 [IST]

"Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character." said John Wooden and that's what these students from Université Laval of Quebec's character were made of: grit and determination.

They won the 11th annual Shell Eco-marathon Americas competition in Detroit for the fourth time and the second year in a row, recording 1153.41 km per litre with its ultra-energy-efficient petrol-powered prototype car.

Car With 1,153 Km Per Litre Mileage Built By College Students

The Shell Eco-marathon Americas is a competition in which university students design a prototype car employing various fuels, from petrol to hydrogen fuel cells, to maximise efficiency on a Detroit, Michigan test track.

Laval's win follows a victory in the 2016 competition in which it built a car that managed to deliver a fuel efficiency of 1,098.99 km/l. With this year's win, it marks the school's fourth since the competition started 11 years ago.

More than 1,200 students involving 115 teams competed in the contest. The students from Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the US took part in the competition.

The Laval team presented a petrol-powered car for the Prototype category, which gave designers the most freedom in how they produced fuel efficiency.

The team's car was successful because it was lightweight, aerodynamic, and powerful for its size. The prototype car boasted of a little 2bhp, most of which got the car up to speed so it could ride with the engine off.

Members of the team have said in past years the driver's strategy is to reach roughly 32km/h and then drop the speed to around 14.48km/h before restarting the engine.

Each team had to test the car by driving ten laps or 9.65km and had to maintain an average speed of 24.14km/h.

Shell Eco-marathon is a unique, global competition that challenges students to push the boundaries of energy efficiency on the road. There are three Shell Eco-marathon competitions held throughout the year in Asia, America and Europe.

The competition provides a platform for students to test vehicles they design and build themselves. It strives to inspire young people to become scientists and engineers of the future.