SHELL announced recently that Malaysia will host Shell Eco-marathon Asia in 2019 as part of its global Make the Future Live program. Held at Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, the Asia competition comes back to where it was first held in 2010, and celebrates its 10th year of challenging bright young student minds to design and build ultra-energy-efficient cars, and then take them out on the track in competition.

From April 29 to May 2 over100 teams from all over Asia and the Middle East will test their self-built energy-efficient cars in the Shell Eco-marathon Mileage Challenge, to see who can go the farthest using the least amount of energy.

Saudi Arabia will again be participating in Shell Eco-marathon Asia, with a contingent of four futuristic cars from three universities competing to be the most energy-efficient. Participating teams this year are one team from King Saud university, two teams from AlFaisal university including the first Saudi female team to participate in the competition. Also, for the first time, Prince Sultan University will be competing in the Shell Eco-marathon.

”Every year, we see an increasing standard of performance, as well as team spirit and passion, among the student participants at Shell Eco-marathon Asia. The Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia is the perfect venue to witness new innovations in vehicle design come to life. We look forward to another exciting year at Shell Eco-marathon Asia,” said Shanna Simmons, Shell Eco-marathon Global Technical Director

“Shell Malaysia is proud to host the 10th Shell Eco-marathon Asia at our home ground. It is an inspiring event that supports Shell’s vision of sustainable mobility - more energy efficient vehicles and cleaner road transport. It’s really impressive to see student teams pitting their skills against their cohorts from different countries to see who can design and build the most fuel-efficient vehicle,” explained Iain Lo, Chairman of Shell Malaysia.

“Shell has been in Malaysia for over 125 years, and we will continue to power Malaysia’s future with cleaner, innovative and competitive energy solutions, some of which will be showcased at the event,” he further added.

Student teams will also have the opportunity to qualify for the Shell Eco-marathon Drivers’ World Championship. Introduced to the Shell Eco-marathon program 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. Qualified teams will go to London for a chance to compete with teams from Europe and the Americas. In 2018, ITS Team 2 from Indonesia’s Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Surabaya was crowned the ultimate global winner of the Drivers’ World Championship, the second Asian team to win in the three years the competition has been running.

In 2018 Singapore hosted the event, where the winning team was efficient enough to travel 2,341 kilometers – about the distance from Abu Dhabi, UAE to Amman, Jordan – on just one liter of fuel. – SG