gear kereta

This question, which comes at a time when the world faces an energy crisis and growing environmental stress, is being posed by petroleum company Shell as a challenge to the region's innovative students.

In the Shell Eco-marathon competition, Asian students are encouraged to design vehicles that use conventional fuels like diesel, petrol and liquid petroleum gas, or alternatives like solar, ethanol, hydrogen or biofuels

The "marathon", which will be held at Malaysia's Sepang International Circuit track from July 8-10, 2010, is aimed at encouraging participants to find solutions to produce fuel-efficient vehicles that can travel the furthest distance using the least amount of fuel. As long as teams abide by safety rules, the design of their vehicles is limited only by their imagination. The key to wining the race will be a vehicle's range or distance it can travel, and not its speed.

Last July 16, some 150 students and academics got a sneak peek at the way the new competition will work. Five selected student teams from Malaysia and Singapore drove specially built energy efficient cars around the Sepang International Circuit's north track.

The preview was specially organised for students to test out the track where the Shell Eco-marathon will take place next year, the first time the competition is being held in Asia. Shell has also built a prototype car to give interested students an opportunity to get a hands-on experience of what is expected of them in preparing their vehicles for the challenge. The event saw student teams from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), the National University of Singapore (NUS), and ITE (Institute of Technical Education) College West in Singapore test drive the eco-car that was purpose-built by Shell.

"The Shell Eco-marathon is a major educational project that encourages and fosters innovation in which students work together to explore potential solutions to both current and future transport and energy challenges," said Shell Malaysia chairman Saw Choo Boon.

"We do not see the Eco-marathon as just a race," said executive vice president of Shell Global Business-to-Business Tan Chong Meng. "Rather, it is about encouraging and inspiring our younger generation to think about energy efficiency, and it offers a platform for innovation in a very practical way. It is about doing more with less, reducing waste."

However, while many praise Shell for promoting a competition that gets people thinking about fuel efficiency, some critics of the marathon point out that the vehicles that take part in the competition are highly impractical, especially for consumer use.

The vehicles have no room for passengers, and drivers are often forced into an uncomfortable position in order to reduce aerodynamic drag. The cars are also designed to achieve maximum fuel efficiency at a low speed, 23kph and some can not drive faster than a mere 48kph. But nobody can deny the world's need for more fuel efficient cars.

Sustainable mobility is one key component of a new energy future, said Tan. "Just consider this: only about 30 per cent of the fuel that you put into your car gets used to move it forward. The rest is wasted and lost," he said. "Then for every kilometre that you drive, you are effectively putting over 1kg of C02 into the atmosphere."

"So, to make our transport more sustainable for the future, we will have to design more efficient engines and fuels, we will have to make cars lighter, we will have to train motorists to drive more efficiently, and we will need to explore alternative transport energies," he added.

More than 230 teams from 33 countries have taken part in the Shell Eco-marathon in the past 25 years in Europe and the Americas, which saw the event's debut two years ago.

Malaysia, chosen for its importance among Shell's Asian heartlands and its excellent infrastructure, will host the annual Shell Eco-marathon Asia from 2010 till 2012.

Thereafter it will be brought to another Asian country to host for the subsequent three years.

"Asia has a lot of excellent students who would show the world their talents and Shell also wants to showcase Asia to the world," said Saw, in explanation for the reason why Shell is bringing the competition to Asia after 25 years of racing in Europe.

Four Asian teams took part in the Shell Eco-marathon Europe in Lausitz, Germany, in May this year. The UTM's Fuel Cell Vehicle Team, with its prototype car, was one of nearly 190 participating teams from around the world.

Two Singaporean teams, Eco n Eco 1 and Eco n Eco 2 from the ITE, also took part in the May's European event which saw 12 Asian teams, competing in the prototype discipline.

Kruce, a team from the NUS, is the only group competing in the urban concept category.

The Shell Eco-marathon programme is open to high schools, colleges, universities and technical institutes throughout Asia. Registration for Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2010 starts on September 1, 2009.