The 30kg car has now achieved its goal: it finished the course at the Shell Eco-Marathon taking place on the Michelin test track at Ladoux, France (June 25-26, using a little over a gram of hydrogen. This, says an ETH Zurich press release is more than 5000 kilometres per liter of gasoline, a new world record in economical fuel consumption.
Apparently, the PAC-Car would need only eight liters to drive around the globe. [Presumably, it would need a refit for the submarine stretches though]
PAC-Car is a collaborative project of ETH Zurich and the Federal Office for Energy (financial support), the Paul Scherrer Institute, the University of Valenciennes, France and the industrial partners ESORO, RUAG and Tribecraft. About 20 ETH students worked on the project, most of them from the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering. The two drivers, both women, are also students at ETH Zurich.
The ETH engineers integrated current developments in fuel cell and propulsion technology, aerodynamics, lightweight construction, and control technology as well as other areas into PAC-Car. They tested the system intensively together with their partners from science and industry, which means there is a good chance that some of the desirable ideas and applications from the project could be integrated into street cars of the future.
SOURCE: ETH/PAC-Car
Was there a driver in it??!
…that’s the beauty of it you see…saves all that fuel by driving itself around the world while you stay at home watching a treadmill-powered TV, saves on double the fossil fuels :-)
From the photo on the website, it does appear to be large enough to house a driver though.
db
What is the conversion factor for “gram of hydrogen” to “liter of gasoline”? ;)
I guess they’re talking about power development equivalents…but point taken conversion factors might be a little arbitary…