Singapore Teams Sweep Hydrogen Awards at Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2018

Make the Future Singapore, Shell’s festival of ideas and innovation for Asia, came to a close today. The four-day showcase of bright ideas and innovation saw thousands of visitors including students, entrepreneurs, businesses, government and the public coming together to experience, test and contribute bright energy ideas. Headlining the festival was Shell Eco-marathon Asia, where over 120 student teams from 18 countries across Asia Pacific and the Middle East put their self-built energy-efficient cars to the test.

Make the Future Singapore

The public enjoyed festival mainstays like the mini Shell Eco-marathon experience to build and race cars powered only by saltwater. Festivalgoers also generated electricity on the kinetic dancefloor with their dance moves and challenged others on the Shell Eco-marathon driving simulator. Other highlights included Bio-bean, which showcased how some buses in London are powered by waste coffee grounds, and Liter of Light, which powers rural homes and villages in the Philippines with a solar panel and a bottle of water. The festival also played host to the fifth Asian edition of the Shell Powering Progress Together forum, which brought together more than 150 leaders, young talents and representatives from business, government and society to discuss, debate and catalyse cross-border collaborations to tackle future energy challenges.

2018 marks the end of the global festival’s two-year tenure in Singapore. Ms Goh Swee Chen, Chairman of Shell Singapore, said: “It has been an enriching experience discussing bright ideas and innovation while working with various stakeholders to map the future of Asian mobility. This is not the end of the road for this festival in Asia. The Make the Future campaign carries on throughout our region through different activities, and the 2019 venue will be announced in due course. I wish the next host country every success.”

Drivers’ World Championship Asia

Team SEMAR URBAN UGM INDONESIA from Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia claimed victory in the second edition of Drivers’ World Championship Asia, in a race to cross the finish line first on the least amount of fuel. The top three teams from the Asia regional final will face off against the best UrbanConcept teams from the Americas and Europe in the Grand Final to be held at Make the Future Live in London, UK, on July 8, 2018. The overall winner will earn a once-in-a-lifetime experience at the home of Scuderia Ferrari.

Norman Koch, Shell Eco-marathon General Manager, said: “The Drivers’ World Championship demands the best in automotive technology and innovation to push the boundaries of energy efficiency. Sharp skills and a sound strategy in handling the vehicle and managing fuel efficiency are imperative in helping the team cross the finish line first. We saw amazing action and excitement today and my congratulations goes to all the teams.”

Strong showing by Singapore teams

Singapore teams were the big winners in the hydrogen categories at Shell Eco-marathon. Nanyang Technological University’s NTU Singapore 3D-Printed Car won the UrbanConcept – Hydrogen category, Temasek Polytechnic’s TP ECO FLASH claimed first spot in the Prototype – Hydrogen category, and Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s H2GO won the Most Innovative Hydrogen Newcomer Award and was 1st runner-up in the Prototype – Hydrogen category.

“We couldn’t believe it ourselves and are extremely elated to win. With no prior experience in designing and building the hydrogen-powered car, we are thankful that our school Temasek Polytechnic and teachers supported us on this journey to represent Singapore in Shell Eco-marathon Asia. Never have we felt such a huge sense of achievement, and we are glad that our hard work and efforts have paid off,” said Xu Yang, Team Leader of TP ECO FLASH from Temasek Polytechnic. Temasek Polytechnic is the only school to have built their own compact hydrogen fuel cell in Singapore for this competition.

On Drivers’ World Championship, Richmond Ten, Team Leader of NTU Singapore 3D-Printed Car from Nanyang Technological University, said: “Wow, that was such a challenging race and congratulations to Team Semar Urban UGM Indonesia! We believe we have put up a really good fight and learnt so much from this journey and also from all the other teams around us. We thank all who have supported us in this journey and are glad to have represented Singapore in Shell’s Drivers’ World Championship Asia.”

This year’s Shell Eco-marathon Asia saw the largest Singapore contingent ever, with 10 futuristic cars from seven tertiary institutions competing to be the most energy-efficient in the region. Contenders from Singapore included a first-time entrant in newcomer Temasek Polytechnic, new cars from institutions like Ngee Ann Polytechnic, as well as returning teams from universities such as Nanyang Technological University and Singapore University of Technology and Design.

The Best of the Prototypes

Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2018 today also crowned the winners in the Prototype category. The best mileage record for the Internal Combustion Engine category was 2,341.1 km/l by Panjavidhya1 from Panjavidhya Technological College (Thailand), beating last year’s record of 2,288.9 km/l. Other winners in the Prototype competition included Team HuaQi-EV from Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology (China), with a result of 511.0 km/kWh in the Battery Electric category, and Team TP ECO FLASH from Temasek Polytechnic (Singapore) with a result of 404.3 km/m3 in the Hydrogen category.

Off-Track Awards

Shell Eco-marathon is about more than winning on the track. Students are recognised for their communications, technical innovation, design, safety and perseverance.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s H2GO won the Most Innovative Hydrogen Newcomer Award for achieving an optimum balance of technical quality despite the challenges associated with this energy source. The team also successfully drove train efficiency and aced concept innovation with the car’s light-weight, aerodynamic body.

2018 Shell Eco-marathon Asia Results

PROTOTYPE

URBANCONCEPT

DRIVERS’ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ASIA

2018 Shell Eco-marathon Asia Off-track Awards

Communications Award

520 DTU Supermileage

Delhi Technological University, India

The team’s well-planned communication strategy took a data-driven approach that led to extensive publicity for the team and for Shell Eco-marathon Asia. Their creative use of social media influencers also helped simplify and drive home the competition and energy-efficiency message to the public. They also involved stakeholders like a Deputy Chief Minister as well as well-known female motorcycle racers to help amplify their messages.

Technical Innovation Award

Team EnduroKiwis

University of Canterbury, New Zealand

3D printing of various vehicle parts has been around for a number of years, but this team has taken a holistic approach to designing and printing the complete engine in a way that is not only optimised for efficient production of the printed parts, but also for optimised engine fuel efficiency.

Vehicle Design (Prototype) Award

Team Huaqi-EV

Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology, China

Team HuaQi-EV produced a slim, tightly-packaged and compact car. Its slender proportions and streamlined shape helped to put an attractive face to efficiency. The eye-catching car featured small wheels to reduce the frontal area of their car and keep its overall size and weight down. This “less is more” mentality was highly effective on the track and encouraged the students to focus on innovative ways to balance out competing needs such as vehicle strength, weight reduction and space requirements. The team’s body-on-frame design also helped to produce a relatively low-cost car.

Vehicle Design (UrbanConcept) Award

Team ZEAL ECO-POWER URBAN

Tongji University, China

The car featured clear focus on weight reduction, fuel efficiency through optimising the design for air resistance, friction, a simple and effective design for door hinges and closers, and the integration of systems. The team also showed effective use of tools for virtual design development. It was an excellent job of translating the design process into a well-made final product.

Safety Award

Team GARUDA UNY ECO TEAM

Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Safety was evidently ingrained in every member of the team – their behaviour and collaboration on track and in the paddocks reflected an integral approach encompassing workplace and environmental safety and safety of the car. The team went beyond conventional safety simulations and instead used physical experiments (e.g. using a hydraulic press) to test their design and modified the vehicle design and materials based on their test results.

Perseverance and Spirit of the Event Award

NUST Eco-motive

National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan

When it became clear on Friday night that the team would not pass technical inspection on time, the team gave away their engine to a team who desperately needed one. They also gave away their tyres, battery and other vehicle parts to help about 20 other competing teams and shared their facilities and tools with others. This demonstrated the true spirit of the competition.

Most Innovative Hydrogen Newcomer

H2GO

Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore

The team managed to achieve optimum balance of technical quality despite the challenges associated with this energy source. The team also successfully drove train efficiency and aced concept innovation with the light-weight, aerodynamic body. The team walks away with a specially designed sculpture and US$1,200.

About Make the Future Singapore

Shell’s Make the Future Singapore, featuring Shell Eco-marathon Asia, returned to Singapore for a second year from March 8-11, 2018. As a festival of ideas and innovation for Asia, this event has the widest geographical reach, accounting for more than 60% of the world’s population. Headlining the event was the Shell Eco-marathon Asia, where futuristic and fuel-efficient cars built by over 120 student teams from around Asia Pacific and the Middle East competed to be the most energy-efficient.

Make the Future Festivals is Shell’s global platform for conversation, collaboration and innovation around the world’s energy challenges. With events hosted in countries around the globe, they aim to provide an opportunity for multiple stakeholders: including students, entrepreneurs, businesses, governments and the public, to experience, test and contribute bright energy ideas.

About Shell Eco-marathon

One of the world’s longest-running student competitions, Shell Eco-marathon is a global programme that challenges bright student minds to design and build ultra-energy-efficient cars, and then put them to the test in competition.

Shell Eco-marathon Asia includes two key competitions. The longest running competition is the Mileage Challenge where teams compete to travel the farthest on the least amount of fuel. In 2017, the winning team of the Asian leg was efficient enough to travel 2,289 kilometres – the distance from Singapore to Chiang Mai, Thailand – on just one litre of fuel!

The second Shell Eco-marathon competition in Singapore is Drivers’ World Championship Asia. 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.

Shell Eco-marathon is a visible demonstration of Shell’s commitment to help the world meet its growing energy needs in a responsible way by working together with students, partners and other stakeholders.

ENQUIRIES:

Jason Leow
General Manager, External Relations, Shell Singapore
Jason.Leow@shell.com

Josephine Pang
Senior Client Executive, Edelman Singapore
Josephine.pang@edelman.com

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