Université Laval wins Shell Eco-Marathon Americas … Again

For the sixth time in the competition’s eight-year history, Universite Laval’s Alérion Supermileage team of engineering undergrads has won the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas title with run of 2,824 miles per gallon (1200 km/l). The fuel efficiency competition, which took place April 23-25 in Houston, Texas, brought together 120 teams across North America to vie for $2,000 prize for the most fuel-efficient vehicle.

While the Laval team has historically run away with the first place prize in years past, Alerion faced stiff competition from their rivals at the University of Toronto’s Supermileage team due to friction problems in the Laval vehicle’s electrical system.

“Our team is very excited with the results of the weekend,” said team captain Audrey Lainé. “Initially we had issues with our engine, but we came together as a team to fix it and are extremely satisfied. The University of Toronto and Mater Dei High School had very close scores to our team, which made the weekend even more exciting.”

Past champion Mater Dei High School from Evansville, Indiana, achieved 901.48 mpg with its gasoline vehicle Elroy, breaking its previous record of 849 mpg and scoring the $2,000 top prize in the UrbanConcept category for the third year in a row. The school’s other entry, a prototype battery electric vehicle, captured that energy category with 537.16 miles per kilowatt-hour (m/kWh).

Other achievements included a new record set in the prototype diesel category by The No Spark Plug Allowed team from Sullivan High School, whose Black Diesel vehicle achieved 1,899.32 mpg.

The University of Colorado Boulder team achieved 1,771.37 mpg with their vehicle Tatonkatoo in the prototype ethanol category while the University of Colorado Denver UCDenver team achieved 37.37 m/kWh with their prototype hydrogen vehicle, Archetype

After five years in Houston, the competition is scheduled to move to Detroit on on April 10-12, 2015. To drum up excitement for next year’s event, Sullivan High School’s winning vehicle will be displayed in Detroit’s Henry Ford museum.
www.shell.com/ecomarathon