Third European Championship Title and a New Team Record for the ThaiGer-H2-Racing Team
The ThaiGer-H2-Racing Team from the University of Applied Sciences Stralsund reached the first position of this year’s Shell Eco-marathon which took place from 2nd to 5th of July. The team also set a new efficiency record and won the European Championship Title for the third time in a row.
Again, the students racing team managed to win the most important title with its hydrogen-powered vehicle at the world’s biggest competition regarding mobility. The aim of this contest is to construct a vehicle that covers a certain distance with as few fuel as possible. The past two years, the team already achieved the European Championship Title. And this year, the new efficiency record of 1083 km/m3 hydrogen was set and the team was on the world’s top list. As next to Europe (venue London), the Shell Eco-marathon also takes place in America (Sonoma) and Asia (Singapore). But figures like this could not be achieved elsewhere.
Shell Eco-marathon Europe
Our team participated in this year’s marathon in London, where 145 teams competed, for the 11th time. Every year, the ThaiGer-H2-Racing team competes in the category prototype/hydrogen. The race car is driven by an electric engine and a hydrogen-powered fuel cell instead of a combustion engine. It is a guiding principle for the University of Applied Sciences Stralsund because hydrogen is one of the major research topics. Hydrogen is a means of the future regarding environmental-friendly mobility such as road transport as well as ship traffic.
Thrilling competition
Race car driver Janika Schmeiser had to manage an even but serpentine track after the venue was relocated to the Mercedes-Benz World. The student already travelled to the United Kingdom two years ago and achieved the first European Championship Title together with the former team members. This title could be confirmed both last and this year. The university team received support by project leader Prof. Dr. Johannes Gulden. He is member of the Institute of Renewable EnergySystems at the University Stralsund. As well as project member and driving force Andreas Sklarow and the team manager Paul Grape who is a student of electrical engineering.
Besides, the competitors recognised the success. Especially the also strong team H2politO from Turin that gained this year’s 2nd position, expressed its congratulations and pleasure to have a big challenger. “The neck-and-neck race with the team from Turin was a motivation for us and increased the tension extremely”, admitted project leader Johannes Gulden. “In the end, it became clear that as well a little bit of luck and a lot of engineering expertise are necessary to win such a title.”
Praise by the rector
Rector Prof. Dr. Petra Maier is visibly proud of the team’s performance and the personal commitment of all team members. “Our students have sacrificed a large amount of their free-time between exams and intensive studying to gain the required specialist knowledge, to build the new car and to fulfil all conditions for the race. There is a lot of lifeblood involved”, praises Maier.
Greendrive team on the 5th position
Furthermore, the fact that there is great potential for future engineering expertise was shown in the category battery prototype. Team Greendrive is a team of pupils from “Schulzentrum am Sund” supervised by the university. This team participated repeatedly on the race and achieved the 5th postion of overall 41 competitors in this category. That is an even more impressing performance because due to the variety of difficult task there are not many teams consisting of pupils at the marathon.
Thanks for the support
The ThaiGer-H2-Racing Team and Greendrive thank all the sponsors and supporters that assisted the development and the construction of both race cars.
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