Future Flow

The Shell Eco-marathon sees steps being made toward increased energy efficiency in the cars we drive

- Bruce Dennill

Everyone is talking about autonomous cars as the future of motoring, and that may well be the case. But if those self-driving vehicles are still chewing up as much fuel as a muscle car, such advances will make no environmental difference at all.

The Shell Eco-marathon, which was launched in South Africa in 2014, invites students – the engineers and consumers of our future technology – to design, build and drive the most energy-efficient vehicles possible. Last year’s chapter was hosted by the School of Electrical Engineering from the University of Johannesburg and took place at the Zwartkops Raceway outside Pretoria.

The objective here is not only, as with most efficiency challenges, to try and get maximum mileage out of a litre of fuel. That only helps with the current situation, rather than giving insight into what is possible in the future. A couple of cars are using hydrogen cells and the majority are testing electric batteries.