Ahead of the continent's most prestigious universities, the SZEnergy Team, a team of students from Széchenyi István University developing an electric vehicle, took first place in Europe's largest energy efficiency competition in the self-driving and city car categories, beating their own world record in the latter category from last year. The young professionals, who achieved unprecedented success, were congratulated by the leaders of Széchenyi István University and members of the Board of Trustees and Supervisory Board of the Széchenyi István University Foundation.

Both categories of this year's Shell Eco-marathon were held in Nogaro, France, from 19 to 25 May.

The only Hungarian participant, SZEnergy Team, set out to take the two first places in a very strong race, and defying expectations, won both the small city car category and the autonomous (self-driving) category, setting a new world record of 291 kilometres per kilowatt hour (beating its own world record from a year earlier). 

The leaders of Széchenyi István University and the Széchenyi István University Foundation with the members of the SZEnergy Team and the world record car (Photo: Csaba József Májer)

The electric vehicle from Győr completed the designated distance with such low consumption that it would have covered 291 kilometres using 1 kilowatt hour, which is essentially the equivalent of two hours of ironing. The value of this success is enhanced by the fact that renowned universities such as the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the Universities of Turin, Milan, Munich, Toulouse, Athens and the University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam finished behind the team of Széchenyi István University. The team was greeted by the leaders of the institution and members of the Board of Trustees of the Széchenyi István University Foundation on the Győr campus, and awarded a certificate in recognition of their achievement.

On behalf of the university's management, Prof. Dr. Ferenc Friedler, Rector, Vice President for Academic Affairs, congratulated the members of the SZEnergy Team on their outstanding result. As he said, last year's record is already a great achievement, but the fact that they not only repeated it, but even surpassed it, is a truly remarkable success. What makes it even more remarkable is that they beat Europe's leading technology universities, setting their own world record by 18 per cent, 18 per cent better than the runner-up.

At the welcome ceremony, team leader Dávid Krecz presented the most important milestones of this year's Shell Eco-marathon.

"At the beginning of the competition, our vehicle had to undergo a thorough overhaul. In the energy efficiency category, each team had four attempts, and the final order was determined by the best run results. In the autonomous competition, we had to complete three tasks. In the first, the vehicle had to drive itself around the track, in the second it had to avoid obstacles and in the third it had to park itself”, he said. He stressed that they had been aiming for first place before the competition, but the margin of victory surprised even them, as they beat the continent's leading technology universities. He added that the attention of the other teams was a real recognition for them and their successful efforts were met with applause from their rivals.

Dávid Krecz, team leader of the SZEnergy Team, spoke about the background of the success (Photo: Csaba József Májer)