THE 10th Shell Eco-Marathon Asia saw Malaysia winning its very first Circular Economy Award at the Sepang International Circuit.
Team MMU Grune Welt from the Multimedia University Melaka campus integrated the concept of “circular economy” in the manufacturing of its vehicle, in addition to incorporating an assessment method to analyse environmental impacts. The team received a US$3,000 (RM12,416) prize in recognition of its achievement.
“We couldn’t be happier as all our hard work and efforts finally paid off. I hope more Malaysian teams will participate in the Shell Eco-marathon Asia in the upcoming years,” said MMU Grune Welt team manager Athmas Thum.
The regional Shell Eco-Marathon Asia event first started in 2010 in Malaysia. Through the years, Shell Eco-Marathon Asia has grown with more participating teams and vehicles.
More than 100 teams from 18 countries in Asia Pacific and the Middle East competed in this year’s event. A total of 56 teams participating in the UrbanConcept category and 53 teams in the Prototype category. Five Malaysian teams participated in this year’s event, three in the Prototype category and two in the UrbanConcept category.
This year, the event included two key competitions — Mileage Challenge and the qualifier for the Drivers’ World Championship.
The Mileage Challenge requires teams to compete in travelling the farthest using the least amount of fuel. Last year, the winning team of the Asian leg was efficient enough to travel 2,341km — about the distance from Kuala Lumpur to Yangon — on just one litre of fuel.
For the qualifier, it was a race to see who could cross the finish line first without running out of the limited allocation of energy.
The teams competed in three categories based on their selected energy source — Internal Combustion Engine (ICE); petrol, diesel, ethanol (biofuel) and hydrogen fuel cell; and battery electric power.
All vehicles must pass a detailed technical inspection before they were allowed onto the track to see how far they could go .
In the Mileage Challenge’s Prototype category, RMUTP Racing from Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon in Thailand achieved an equivalent of 1,546.9km on a litre of ethanol with their prototype car.
Other winners in the Prototype category included HuaQi-EV from China with a result of 501.6km/kwh in the battery electric category and TP Eco Flash from Singapore with 403.3km/m3 in the hydrogen category.
However, only participants in the UrbanConcept category were able to qualify for the Drivers’ World Championship.
In the Drivers World Championship Qualifier, Nanyang E Drive from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore beat other competitors in a breathtaking race to cross the finish line without running out of their limited allocation of energy.
“It was nerve-wracking as we were a close second for most of the race. Our secret was just very good teamwork — the team monitoring every aspect of the car, letting me know how much energy to use and where to use it. So it was a very well-coordinated effort and that to me was the key to our success,” said Nanyang E Drive team driver Colin Ioh.
ITS Team 5 from Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember of Indonesia and team LH-EST from Lac Hong University of Vietnam finished second and third, respectively.
The top three teams from the Asia qualifier will face off against the best UrbanConcept teams from Americas and Europe in the Drivers’ World Championship 2019 to be held at “Make the Future Live” event in London on July 5.
Winners of the 2019 Drivers’ World Championship will also gain an invitation to visit Scuderia Ferarri’s headquarters in Italy, where they will participate in workshops and learn from the best at Ferrari.