UBC Students Create Car Capable of Travelling from Vancouver to Halifax on a Gallon of Gas
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UBC Engineering student Kevin Li, at the helm of the Mark V |
Engineering students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) have built a vehicle capable of travelling the distance from Vancouver to Halifax on a single gallon of gasoline.
The team of UBC engineering students recently took top prize for their vehicle—the Mark V—at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Supermileage Competition, an international competition that challenges students to design, build and drive a single-person vehicle to achieve the best fuel mileage possible, powered only by gasoline. Teams from Canada, India and the U.S. took part in the competition, which was held on June 9, in Marshall, Michigan.
The UBC team maximized vehicle efficiency by optimizing aerodynamics, and by employing lightweight construction, a small displacement engine and conservative driving habits. The vehicle achieved an amazing 3,145 miles per US gallon (0.074 L/100 km), the theoretical equivalent of Vancouver to Halifax on a gallon (3.79 L) of gas, which at today’s rates, costs less than $5 at the pump.
This is the UBC team’s forth consecutive win in six years of competition. Last year, they achieved 1,600 miles per gallon, beating 27 teams. This year’s entry achieved nearly twice that amount, by comparison.
The Université Laval took second place this year with a score of 1, 823 miles per gallon. Other universities represented were the University of Windsor; University of California, Los Angeles; UC Berkeley, Pennsylvania State University, and the Delhi College of Engineering.
For more information on the Super Mileage Competition, visit www.supermileage.org.
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Members of the UBC Supermileage Team and their winning vehicle |