Students from four Vietnamese universities will form six teams to take part in the 2013 Shell Eco-marathon Asia this July in Malaysia.

The students, from the Hanoi University of Industry, Hanoi University of Technology, HCMC University of Industry, and HCMC University of Technology, will compete against 140 teams from 18 countries across Asia at the competition.

This year’s event, the third since 2011, will welcome 1,500 students, who will challenge each other in stretching the limits of energy efficiency at the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, from July 4 to 7.

There will be competitors from five new countries in the 2013 event, whose total cash prize is some US$65,000, according to the organizers.

This super-mileage race, created by Shell, is designed to inspire student innovation and develop future technologies that represent game-changing fuel efficiency and transportation performance.

To help meet the growing energy demand and reduce future CO2 emissions, the Shell Eco-marathon Asia challenges participants to design, build, and test vehicles to go the farthest distance using the least amount of energy, according to Shell.

Team Vietnam

The members of the Vietnamese teams are those who passed the technology design qualifying round in November 2012.

This is the third consecutive year Vietnam will participate in the Eco-marathon, but is the first they will have a team in the “Urban Concept” category.

The “Urban Concept” class focuses on more “roadworthy” fuel-efficient vehicles.  Aimed at meeting the real-life needs of drivers, these vehicles are closer in appearance to the higher-mileage cars seen on roads today.

Meanwhile, the “Prototype” category invites student teams to enter futuristic prototypes – streamlined vehicles focused on maximizing fuel efficiency through innovative design elements, such as drag reduction.

In the 2012 event, the BIO-ENERGY team, from the Hanoi University of Technology, finished just behind Thailand in the “Prototype” category.

This year the Hanoi University of Technology will bring vehicles that can be powered by both gasoline and ethanol, said Nguyen Dinh Tuan, a team member.

“If these vehicles are deployed, they will help save some VND29 billion worth of fuel cost for around 20 million on-traffic vehicles per day, as ethanol is VND6,000 per liter cheaper than gasoline,” he explained.