Has it ever occurred by you that an oil company is even planning to produce a fuel-efficient vehicle? Probably not, but Shell did it. The Netherlands-based oil company, in collaboration with Gordon Murray Design and Geo Technology to designed and made the Shell Concept Car, a gasoline-powered urban car yet highly fuel efficient. Thus reported by the Engineer, last weekend.
As we all knew, Gordon Murray is a Formula 1 car designer who had worked for Brabham and McLaren, while the Geo Technology is the automotive specialist company established by former Honda F1 director, Osamu Goto.
Project M City Car Concept is the efforts of Shell to create an urban car that is fuel efficient. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1ZoMHk) |
After designing the F1 racing car, Murray makes the Gordon Murray Design company that introduced the concept of iStream to manufacture a vehicle. This concept is also applied to the Project M's. And as the basis for its design, Project M has made the Murray's T.25 car in 2010 as inspiration. Shell himself calls the Project M as "a total rethinking of T.25."
As wrote by This is Money, there are almost no difference in terms of design between the two cars. And Shell claims the car can run about 38 km on just one liter of gasoline, if it is run in a constant speed of 70 km/h. This figure does not seem surprising, but very impressive when considering that the Project M is not a hybrid car. It fully rely on gasoline as the fuel of its engine.
The oil giant has released information and images of its new Project M concept car featuring a forward-folding roof (Clam-Shell design). (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1ZoMh4) |
Dashboard view of the Shell concept car. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1ZoMV9) |
The Project M has a top speed of 156 km/h (97 mph), but this is limited to 145 km/h (90 mph) by design. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1ZoN2u) |
Seat configuration of the Shell concept car. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1ZoNSH) |
"This is a significant achievement in an automobile engineering," said Mark Gainsborough, the executive vice president of Shell global's lubricants business. "The results of this project could change the way we use energy in the road transport sector."
One thing that is highlighted by Gainsborough is increased the fuel efficiency due to the use of special lubricants developed with engine designers and the car as a whole. "It proves the important role of lubricant in order to reduce CO2," he said. Shell has not announced when the car is going to try to be produced, but will be introduced to the public for the first time at the Beijing Motor Show 2016 held on April 25 to May 5, 2016 in China.
Note: This blog can be accessed via your smart phone