Canadian prototype vehicle gets 2,564 mpg

Houston — For the third year in a row, and beating last year’s mileage by 77 mpg, the student team from Universite Laval in Quebec (Alerion Supermileage) took home the Internal Combustion First Prize at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2011, this past weekend. Competing in the prototype class, the team posted a best run of 2,564.8 miles per gallon. In the UrbanConcept class, the team from Louisiana Technical University in Ruston, La. took First Prize by achieving a best run of 646.7 mpg.

“Every year, the competition at Shell Eco-marathon Americas gets a little tougher,” said Anthony Bernier of Universite 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. We put a lot of time and hard work into our vehicle this year and are very proud of how we did.”

The 62 teams who participated in Shell Eco-marathon entered 56 prototype entries and 12 UrbanConcept entries. The Prototype entries consisted of 39 vehicles powered by internal combustion engines included 32 by gasoline, three ethanol, three diesel fuel and one biodiesel. The UrbanConcept entries consisted of nine vehicles powered by internal combustion engines including seven by gasoline and two by diesel fuel.

Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2011 event sponsors included SKF USA Inc., Autodesk, Southwest Research Institute, Michelin and Pennzoil ULTRA. Shell Eco-marathon Americas energy challenge will return to the streets of Houston in March 2012.
www.shell.com/ecomarathon