Shell gears up for Eco-Marathon 2014 launch: To be held in Manila for the first time

MANILA, Philippines - Smarter mobility takes to the Philippine streets next year for the first time, as Manila hosts the Shell Eco-Marathon 2014.  Shell gives the Philippine teams a chance to showcase their take on innovation in mobility in an urban track around the heart of Manila, a first for the Shell Eco-marathon Asia.

The Shell Eco-Marathon is an annual competition that lauds not the fastest, but the most efficient vehicles that consume as little fuel as possible over a set distance. First held in Europe in 1985, the Shell Eco-Marathon has been promoting energy efficiency for almost 30 years. SEM was then brought to America in 2007 and, Asia (Sepang Circuit in Malaysia) in 2010.

This year the Shell Eco-Marathon moves from an F1 track in Malaysia to a street circuit around Luneta in Manila.

“We are very excited to be hosting Shell Eco-marathon Asia next year as we celebrate Shell’s 100-year presence in the Philippines” said Roberto Kanapi, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation VP for Communications. “We at Shell are committed to providing clean, sustainable energy and educating our consumers on energy conservation and fuel efficiency.”

This 2014, 13 Philippine teams from top engineering schools have decided to translate their ideas on greener energy and sustainable mobility into creations that showcase not speed but fuel efficiency. These universities include De La Salle University, Mapua Institute of Technology, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Technological Institute of the Philippines-Manila, Technological Institute of the Philippines-QC and University of Santo Tomas.

“We decided to join Shell Eco-Marathon 2014 not just to hone our theoretical and technical skills, but mainly to inspire the Filipino youth” says Sonny Aurellano, Team Manager for Team PUP-Manila. “We want to contribute to a better environment, give pride to our campus and, most especially, to our country”

For BlueJay Calalang, Team Manager for Team TIP Golden Engineers, joining the Shell Eco-Marathon 2014 was like hitting two birds with one stone. “Our program has a Design Project course, which required us to design and build a solution to the environmental issues we are faced with today. We decided to take the opportunity to present our project as a means to contribute to the world’s energy conservation, as well as participate in a prestigious competition for aspiring engineers.”

Though next year marks the first time that SEM will be brought to the Philippines, some teams have already had the chance to join previous legs of Shell Eco-marathon. “The core members of this year’s team were already a part of last year’s team. TIP has been joining SEM and successfully building eco cars since 2011 in support of a greener community and responsible engineering.” says Rommel Santo, Team Manager for TIP-Mileage. “The Shell Eco-Marathon is a perfect avenue for engineering students to apply engineering techniques that we have learned from our respective schools and at the same time, open a platform to work on energy efficiency and smarter mobility.”

At the core, the Shell Eco-marathon aims to reach out and instill the concept of sustainable mobility to future engineers and the general public. “Someday, the world will experience a scarcity of energy.” says Gerald Alzaga, Team Manager for Mapua’s Team Aguila “It’s best for us to start saving energy and developing alternative solutions to avoid ending up with nothing”

To give the public a sneak preview of the students’ futuristic innovations that will hit the streets of Manila in February, eight of the 13 Philippine teams will showcase their cars in a public run today at the SMX Convention Center.