Every yr , engineering science students compete in the Shell Eco - endurance contest Americas case . The finish is to design , build and manifest a vehicle capable of accomplish astounding fuel efficiency . This yr , a team from Universite Laval in Quebec , Canada , tookhome the grand prizefor cars that apply an internal combustion locomotive engine . The vehicle they come in can journey 2,713.1 statute mile ( 4,366 kilometer ) on a single gal ( 3.8 l ) of gas . That ’s farther than aroad tripfrom Atlanta , Georgia , to Seattle , Washington .
The school has a account of producing amazing epitome vehicle with this form of fuel efficiency . In 2016 , students from Universite Laval record a elevator car into a different supermileage competition hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers . At that event , the vehicle they enter register with a fuel efficiency of3,788 stat mi ( 6,096 kilometers ) per gal .
counterpoint this gas mileage with the most fuel - efficient vehicles today according to theUnited States Department of Energy . The most efficient fomite right now is the Hyundai Ioniq Electric . While it does n’t use gasoline , the Department of Energy notes it is tantamount to a railroad car that catch 136 miles ( 219 km ) per gallon . That ’s impressive , but the prototype cars from Laval are in an completely different conference . How is it possible ?
Supermileage fomite can wring out all that energy from gasoline through a multipronged strategy . Perhaps most obvious is the penury for a high - performance engine , but that ’s just the beginning . You want to strip down your design to the minimum elements to make the vehicle functional but still safe to drive . You must check that your design is as flowing as possible to trim down down on malarkey underground . You take to limit rolling resistance or pull — that ’s the clash between a moving object and a airfoil . And last , you need todevelop a driving techniqueto maximize the force of all the other elements .
The university ’s Alerion Supermileage vehicle is a single - seater car . The squad keeps most of the data about the car enigma to wield a free-enterprise advantage . An early prototype from the same university featured a 3.5 - horsepower engine from Briggs & Stratton with a single piston chamber . That ’s equivalent to a lawn lawn mower engine . The team made all-encompassing changes to the engine , though they did n’t explain what they change .
To counter rolling opposition , the team made the vehicle ’s tyre thin to cut down on open arena contact . The tires are under high pressure level as well . And most supermileage vehicles have only three wheel , again to thin down on the drag created by an unnecessary quaternary tyre make priming coat contact .
The car ’s trunk is made from carbon fibre , a strong and lightweight material . The forcible design minimizes the head-on country to cut down on wind resistance . The 2011 prototype , for deterrent example , had a frontal area measuring 0.285 square meters ( 3.068 hearty feet ) . That ’s a fraction of what you ’ll receive on consumer vehicle .
The paradigm that teams enter into these competition are n’t potential to strike the show floors of your local franchise anytime shortly . They ’re not intended as yield vehicles . But the forward motion engineer make while creating these machines may ascertain their way into future consumer vehicles . So who do it ? perhaps in the future tense you wo n’t sweat it when you see that sign that aver " Last Gas Station for 200 Swedish mile . "
