U of A team taking ‘hydrocar’ to race in global competition
London championship focuses on fuel efficiency — and speed
University of Alberta students will chase after fuel efficiency and top speeds in England next month, using a hydrogen-powered race car.
“We want to make sure that we can reach out to the community,” said Nikola Victorov, the team’s captain. “We want high school students to know that this is something they can get involved with in university.”
A 40-person team made up of engineering, business and graphic art students will compete in the first Driver’s World Championship in London, England using a custombuilt car.
The car is fuelled by hydrogen, which only produces water as a byproduct. The team was founded in 2010 and chose to use hydrogen for fuel. Hydrogen could become an alternative fuel source in the future, said Viktorov.
“There is a lot of support within the University of Alberta for hydrogen fuel cell research,” he said.
The championship is a new part of the Shell Eco-marathon, which challenges students to create the most energy-efficient vehicles. The U of A team compete against teams from the United States, Europe and Asia.
We want high school students to know that this is something they can get involved with in university.
Unlike the Eco-marathon, which focuses only on fuel efficiency, the championship will also focus on speed and winning races.
The winning team will receive an invitation to spend a week at the Scuderia Ferrari factory in Italy.
While the team will face off against other hydrogen-powered cars, there will be a final race involving other fuel categories such as battery-electric cars and gasoline-fuelled cars.
“The amount of work that we have to do in order to make this successful is really huge,” said Viktorov. “But the team has been doing an incredible job with that.”