KTH Eco cars have competed in the Shell Eco-marathon

The story behind the Shell Eco-marathon stretches back over 50 years, until 1959. Then, a group of Shell scientists, based at a research laboratory in Illinois, USA, made a small bet to see who could drive his own car as far as possible using only one litre of fuel. Although they did not achieve much more than 50 miles per gallon (mpg), it was the foundation for the prestigious competition in its present form. Today the contest is held annually in different parts of the world (America, Asia and Europe).

The European version this year was held in Rotterdam and KTH students have during 2012/13 built up two new cars, a fuel cell-powered prototype (called Sleipner ) and an electric city car ( Elba ). Two Swedish records was  of these cars, Sleipner reached 169 km / kWh (equivalent to about 1500 km / liter of petrol). Elba reached 175 km / kWh (equivalent to about 1570 km / liter of petrol). The students have done a fantastic job in this context and there is also a blog about the adventure: KTH Eco Cars 2013 .