Making India proud, team IIT-BHU emerges victorious at Make the Future Live Malaysia 2019
May 03, 2019
- Six teams from India participated at the Make the Future Live Malaysia festival in 2019
- India’s Team Averera from IIT-BHU secures second spot in the battery electric category, with an exceptional mileage of 465 km/kWh
- Takes home the Vehicle Design (Prototype) Award

Shell Companies in India is proud to announce that Team Averera from the Indian Institute of Technology- Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU) has bagged the second position in the battery electric prototype category at the recently concluded Shell Eco-marathon 2019 in Malaysia. Competing with a total of 108 teams participating across Asia, the team stood second in the battery electric prototype category that had 53 participating teams. Team Averera also won the Vehicle Design (Prototype) Award and a cash prize of USD 3000 for their innovative design research and execution, where they captured the challenges faced, and worked on root cause analysis with simulation and arrived at the optimum solution with material selection and design refinement.
A part of the four-day annual event that showcases innovative energy ideas, Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2019 challenged bright students to design and build ultra-energy-efficient cars and then put them to test in the competition. All the six student teams in the Indian contingent passed a detailed technical inspection before they were allowed onto the track to see how far they could go on the least amount of fuel. Team Averera clocked 465 kilometres on 1 kilowatt energy per hour in the Battery Electric prototype category. Out of the six teams, five participated in the battery electric category and one competed in the gasoline category.
Expressing their joy, the team said: “We are delighted to be the first ever Indian team to win an On-track award at Shell Eco-marathon Asia. We see this win as a culmination of all our hard work and perseverance. We have seen continued improvement over years of participation at Shell Eco-marathon Asia thanks to the combined efforts of our Director IIT (BHU) Varanasi, Coordinator (CERD), seniors, teachers and Shell. Participating at Shell Eco-marathon has been an immensely enriching experience where we got to learn from the brightest young minds from across the region. We accept this honour with humility and hope that we continue to do the country proud over years to come.”
Make the Future Live Malaysia celebrated the achievements of a regionally diverse crowd of students from 18 countries across Asia and the Middle East. The festival was inaugurated on 29th April at the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia, with a flag-off ceremony led by Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysian Minister for Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC), and Iain Lo, Chairman of Shell Malaysia. The competition, the first night race in the history of Shell Eco-marathon globally, was a new experience for both the spectators and participants.
Now in its 10th year, the Asian edition of Shell Eco-marathon returned to where it was first held, bringing together over 100 student teams to test which car would go the farthest using the least amount of energy. The four-day festival saw new efficiency records set by the student teams competing in either of two categories of the competition: Prototype (futuristic and highly aerodynamic vehicles) or UrbanConcept (vehicles that resemble today’s cars).
2019 saw even participation in the vehicle types with 55 student teams participating in the UrbanConcept category and 53 student teams competing in the Prototype category. Students competed in three different sub-categories based on their selected energy source: Internal Combustion Engine (ICE): gasoline, diesel, ethanol (biofuel); hydrogen fuel cell; and battery electric power.
The competition concluded on Thursday at the Shell Eco-marathon Drivers’ World Championship Qualifier where the best UrbanConcept teams in the region will compete for their place in the Drivers’ World Championship in London in July in an exciting head-to-head race to find the most energy-efficient driver. Nanyang E Drive from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore beat other top UrbanConcept cars in a breathtaking race to cross the finish line without running out of their limited allocation of energy. ITS Team 5 from Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember in Indonesia and team LH – EST from Lac Hong University in Vietnam took second and third place, respectively.
Norman Koch, General Manager, Make the Future Live, said: “The Drivers’ World Championship incorporates both the fuel efficiency of the vehicle with the technique and skills of the driver. This time it is a strategy of handling the vehicles while simultaneously managing fuel efficiency. We saw amazing action and my congratulations go to all the teams for all their achievements.”
In addition, a small number of Shell Eco-marathon student teams also took part in the development of a potential global category for the future. The Shell Eco-marathon UrbanConcept Autonomous Category continues to be developed with students, academics and businesses to build a category that can provide a challenging competitive arena for students to test their ideas and skills.
In Asia, teams got the opportunity to exhibit their UrbanConcept car in autonomous mode at Make the Future Live Malaysia. The drivers demonstrated their car moving along a stretch of track without their hands or feet controlling the vehicle.
For more information on Make the Future Live Malaysia and Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2019, please visit: www.shell.my/makethefuture
Notes to editors:
To access previous event images, visit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shell_eco-marathon/albums
About Make the Future
Make the Future Live is a global programme bringing people and ideas into collaborative spaces, driving towards a lower-carbon energy future. The programme comes to Malaysia in 2019 bringing together participants from Asia Pacific and beyond.
At the heart of Make the Future Live is Shell Eco-marathon. Over its three-decade history the programme has seen thousands of high school and university students from across the world build ultra-energy-efficient vehicles, in a variety of designs, using a spectrum of energy types.
Every year brings new stories of human endeavour and technical excellence, as teams push the boundaries of what’s possible. In 2019, Make the Future Live Malaysia will host a regional leg of this global competition programme, Shell Eco-marathon Asia.
About Shell Eco-marathon
In April 2019, Shell Eco-marathon Asia returns to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which hosted the inaugural regional event in 2010. Through the years, Shell Eco-marathon Asia has grown in both number of teams and vehicles over the years. Over 100 student teams from 18 countries around Asia Pacific and the Middle East will compete in 2019. After spending months designing, building and testing their designs, these bright young engineers will put their self-built energy-efficient cars to the test on the iconic Sepang International Circuit.
Shell Eco-marathon Asia will include two key competitions this year. The longest running competition is the Mileage Challenge where teams compete to discover whose car could travel the farthest on the least amount of fuel. In 2018, the winning team of the Asian leg was efficient enough to travel 2,341 kilometres – about the distance from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Yangon, Myanmar – on just one litre of fuel!
In addition, teams will have the opportunity to take part in a qualifier for the Drivers’ World Championship. Matching the proven energy-efficiency of their car with the strategy, skill and speed of the driver, this is a race to see who crosses the finish line first without running out of their limited allocation of energy. Top teams will win their place in the 2019 Drivers’ World Championship, to be held in July in London.
Shell Eco-marathon is a visible demonstration of Shell’s commitment to help the world meet its growing energy needs in a responsible way by working together with students, partners and other stakeholders.
Editors:
Cindy Lopez
Head, South East Asia/South Asia, Media Relations
+6 012 282 1765/ cindy.lopez@shell.com
Mich Villar
Shell Spokesperson
+63 917 536 6424/ mich.villar@shell.com
Elaine Villanueva
Shell Spokesperson
+6582983855/ elaine.villanueva@shell.com
Shivani Talwar
Edelman India
+919871521310/ shivani.talwar@edelman.com
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