Nigerian university students who built energy-efficient cars have won awards at the Shell Eco Marathon in South Africa.
Last year students from the University Of Lagos (UNILAG) and University of Benin (UNIBEN) built their own versions of energy-efficient cars for the international Shell Eco-marathon.
The competition hosted by the School of Electrical Engineering from the University of Johannesburg, brought together over 100 young engineers from South Africa and Nigeria.
The aim of the competition was to challenge student teams from around the world to design, build and test ultra energy-efficient vehicles.
The winners are the teams that go the furthest using the least amount of energy. Team Nigeria got two out of the six awards given at the event.
The Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun, Delta state, won two awards making them the team with the highest number of awards.
The car built by these students raced for 52.9 kilometers on little fuel, winning first place in the prototype vehicle in the gasoline fuel type category. The team also won an award for developing the most original anti-theft device to secure their vehicle. The University of Lagos team came fifth in the battery electric prototype vehicle category.
Twenty teams from different high schools and universities in South Africa and within the African continent this year registered for the competition. They were classified under two vehicle categories, prototype and urban concept.
The prototype category is to be powered by battery electric or gasoline (unleaded petrol) while the urban concept cars are powered by gasoline (unleaded petrol) or diesel.
The winning teams designed cars that drive the equivalent of the longest distance using the least amount of energy in their chosen category.
This initiative seeks to inspire young people around the world to develop new approaches and energy-efficient solutions to the future of mobility.
Meanwhile a group of students from the University of Lagos over a month ago built an eco-friendly car.
According to the students, the car does not diffuse gas or make use of fossil fuel. The car was built under the Project Dove Initiative.
