Shell announced on February 11 that Malaysia will host Shell Eco-marathon Asia in 2019 as part of its global Make the Future Live programme.
Held at Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, the Asia competition comes back to where it was first held in 2010, and celebrates its 10th year of challenging bright young student minds to design and build ultra-energy-efficient cars, and then take them out on the track in competition.
From April 29 to May 2 over 100 teams from all over Asia and the Middle East will test their self-built energy-efficient cars in the Shell Eco-marathon Mileage Challenge, to see who can go the farthest using the least amount of energy. In 2018 Singapore hosted the event, where the winning team was efficient enough to travel 2,341 kilometres – about the distance from Malaysia to Yangon, Myanmar – on just one litre of fuel!
“Shell Malaysia is proud to host the 10th Shell Eco-marathon Asia at our home ground. It is an inspiring event that supports Shell’s vision of sustainable mobility – more energy efficient vehicles and cleaner road transport. It’s really impressive to see student teams pitting their skills against their cohorts from different countries to see who can design and build the most fuel-efficient vehicle,” explained Iain Lo, Chairman of Shell Malaysia.
“Shell has been in Malaysia for over 125 years, and we will continue to power Malaysia’s future with cleaner, innovative and competitive energy solutions, some of which will be showcased at the event,” he further added.
Student teams will also have the opportunity to qualify for the Shell Eco-marathon Drivers’ World Championship. Introduced to the Shell Eco-marathon programme in 2016, Drivers’ World Championship challenges the best UrbanConcept teams to combine the proven energy efficiency of their car with the speed and skill of their driver, in a race to see who can cross the finish line first on the least amount of fuel. Qualified teams will go to London for a chance to compete with teams from Europe and the Americas. In 2018, ITS Team 2 from Indonesia’s Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Surabaya was crowned the ultimate global winner of the Drivers’ World Championship, the second Asian team to win in the three years the competition has been running.
The Philippines will again participate in the 2019 Shell Eco-marathon Asia, with a contingent of 16 futuristic cars from 14 universities from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao competing to be the most energy efficient.
The Philippine team, which has the second biggest contingent after Indonesia’s 29 teams, are composed of student teams mostly from the college of Engineering representing their schools – Adamson University, Ateneo de Davao University, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle Dasmarinas, De La Salle University-Manila, Mapua University, Institute of Technology, National University, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Polytechnic University of the Philippines – Manila, University of Mindanao, University Of Perpetual Help System-Dalta, University of San Carlos, University of Santo Tomas, and University of the Philippines – Diliman.
”Every year, we see an increasing standard of performance, as well as team spirit and passion, among the student participants at Shell Eco-marathon Asia. The Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia is the perfect venue to witness new innovations in vehicle design come to life. We look forward to another exciting year at Shell Eco-marathon Asia,” said Shanna Simmons, Shell Eco-marathon Global Technical Director.