Isabel from Amsterdam wins the Eco-marathon at TT Circuit Assen with her team
After two missed editions due to COVID-19, the Eco-marathon, an international competition in which it is about driving as far as possible with as little fuel as possible, took place in the Netherlands this year. At the TT Circuit Assen, the teams had 4 attempts to get the best possible result. Isabel Klein: “It was very exciting when the technical inspection still needs to be adjusted, but I’m super proud of how the team managed to get this right straight away and to achieve a result!” On Thursday, the team already managed to put in a good first attempt on the circuit. On the final day, the Eco-Runner team’s leading position was no longer jeopardized and the team managed to improve their yacht even further.
Eco-Runner Team Delft
Eco-Runner Team Delft is a self-managing team consisting of 23 students from TU Delft. The students, all from different study backgrounds, have been independently designing and building a new car that runs on hydrogen every year since 2005. Isabel Klein, Scalability Manager, focuses this year on the importance of sustainability and the role of hydrogen in the resolution sense.
Since September, the current team has been working on the Eco-Runner XII, the newly launched new city car. “It’s really nice and cool to be working on a hydrogen car right now, especially now that the importance of hydrogen for the energy transition is receiving more recognition! That’s what it really feels like when we contribute to the start of the hydrogen revolution!” said Isabel Klein.
Huge improvement
With the previous record of 3369 km/kg hydrogen, 5407 kilometers on one kilogram of hydrogen. By innovating and testing the boundaries on a technical level, they want to see the importance of efficiency and the potential of hydrogen for the mobility sector. The team is stunned: “We have worked so hard and dreamed of an effective so high, but to actually make it come true is a great feeling!”
World record attempt
The year is not yet over for the Delft students. In a month’s time, the students are planning another world record attempt. At the RDW test center, next to Lelystad Airport, they want to know how many kilometers they can drive on one tank of hydrogen. Last year, the team managed to cover almost 1200 kilometers with a limited amount of hydrogen of 350 grams. The current team aims to exceed this.