Nova competing for the University of Gävle in Shell’s Eco-marathon

The machine engineers from Gävle participated this year with the Nova in the competition that is all about developing a vehicle that can be drove as far as possible on only one liter of fuel.

Despite encountering many problems, in the end the students were able to make Nova work. The car that is only half as heavy as the one the previous year and has a newly constructed engine was able to go on for 720 kilometers on one liter of fuel.

- It started with a collision on the first try, and on the second one there were some problems with the engine! So the students are very pleased that in spite of everything they were able to perform so well, says Per Blomqvist, Faculty Programme Director of the machine engineer programme and responsible educator.

- We Believe in Nova and will be developing the vehicle further for next year’s competition.

A great fit for the engineer education

- The project fits well in the engineer educational programme since it’s the students themselves that are constructing and building the car, says Per Blomqvist.

- The students also experiences that this gives great publicity to the university and that it is a very attractive merit to have in their CV.

From the 15th to the 18th of May, teams of students from all over Europe were participating in the competition Shell Eco-marathon which is about designing and building a vehicle that consumes as little fuel as possible.

“HiGtech” which is the name of the team from the University in Gävle participated for the second time this year. The team consists of about 15 machine engineer students and the educator Per Blomqvist.

Shell Eco-marathon

Shell Eco-marathon is a competition that was started by Shell aimed at increasing youth’s interest for technology and science.

The competition has a history dating back to 1939 when employees at Shell wagered who was able to go the farthest on a particular amount of fuel. The result then was 21 kilometers per liter.

The current world record is 3794 kilometers per liter for fuel based vehicles and the Swedish record is 1243 kilometers per liter.

The competition is arranged in USA, Asia and Europe. The machine engineer students from the University of Gävle participated in the competition in Rotterdam the 15th to 18th of May.

Year 2012 the competition was opened to the public and was followed by as much as 40 000 visitors and participants.

For further information please contact:
Per Blomqvist, lecturer and Faculty Programme Director of the Machine Engineer Programme in the Faculty of Technology and Environment, the University of Gävle
Phone: 026- 64 88 05
Email:perbit@hig.se