A Dutch engineer team called the Green Team Twente is committed to developing the world’s most efficient hydrogen car. The multidisciplinary team consists of staff and enthusiastic students from the University of Twente and Saxion Hogeschool. They collaborate to build a new car every year, building on the previous years’ efforts and improving it in any way they can.
Green Team Twente explain why they choose to develop a hydrogen car over a battery-powered one in a press release:
Why we focus on hydrogen as a team is simple. Soon fossil fuels will not be sufficient anymore, and electric cars and hydrogen cars form the solution. Both types of cars use electro motors, but one gets its energy from a battery and the other from hydrogen. Hydrogen is a better form of energy storage since it is the most abundant element in the universe; therefore, you cannot run out of it, and it is also greener than batteries. There are currently a few hydrogen stations in the Netherlands, and several hydrogen cars have been brought onto the market. By making our car, we aim to push these developments.
To test out their latest creation and know if it stands the most efficient hydrogen car globally, the team competes in the Shell Eco-Marathon – a student competition in which teams from different universities compete for the title of the most energy-efficient vehicle. The race is not about speed. It’s about who can drive the longest and furthest using the least fuel.
Green Team Twente is the current world champion, having won the race in 2019. They also won in 2017 and 2012. Unfortunately, this year the race was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, if they were to race, they would have used the Aurora 3 – their latest pride and joy. It’s the newest version developed. Many improvements were made on layout, structure, and details.
The wheels in the Aurora 3 get power from one tailor-made hub motor instead of four electric motors. Several of the smaller components were 3D printed to reduce the car’s weight, resulting in a more efficient vehicle. There are technological upgrades as well. In the cockpit is a screen to display driving strategy in real-time to the driver during the race.
The Green Team Twente looks forward to racing the Aurora 3 in 2021, hopefully. They are working on making it street legal to further present hydrogen cars’ potential to the world.
