Here's a way to save at the pump: 2,565 mpg

A student team from Université Laval in Quebec, Canada took home the Internal Combustion First Prize in the fifth annual Shell Eco-marathon Americas this past weekend with a best run of 2,564.8 miles per gallon in the Prototype class.

It’s the third year in a row the university team has won, and its performance this year beat last year’s by 77 miles per gallon.

The Shell Eco-marathon Americas is a challenge for students to design, build and test fuel-efficient vehicles that travel the farthest distance using the least amount of energy. High school and university students from Canada and the United States competed in this year’s two-day street course challenge in downtown Houston.

In this year’s UrbanConcept class, a team from Louisiana Technical University in Ruston took first prize with a best run of 646.7 mpg.

“Every year, the competition at Shell Eco-marathon Americas gets a little tougher,” said Anthony Bernier of Université Laval. “With more teams participating this year, there are a lot of really smart and innovative fuel-efficient ideas to be seen on and off the track.”

This year’s marathon featured a new e-mobility category for both Prototype and UrbanConcept vehicles powered by electric motors using hydrogen, solar or plug-in battery energy sources. Other fuels in the internal combustion-powered vehicles include gasoline, diesel, gas-to-liquids, biodiesel or ethanol.

Shell Eco-marathon is part of Shell’s “Smarter Mobility” program, which is aimed at meeting the needs of today’s drivers as society faces an increasing demand on energy for transport. While alternative energies such as hydrogen and advanced biofuels have real potential, there will not be enough of these energy sources to make a measureable difference for another decade or more. With an eye on the future of transportation, the students and their innovative designs at Shell Eco-marathon are competitively focused on smarter use.

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