March 12th, 2018: Nine days until Rollout. The nights are getting longer and the sleeping periods shorter. The sight of a managing team member still sleeping in the office when the others arrive at 9am, is becoming the usual because he or she was still working two hours ago.

10 months earlier: Everything begins with the start of the concept phase of muc018. After our successful debut in the Urban Concept class with muc017, the team is searching for a new challenge and shell is offering the perfect opportunity. For the very first time at the Shell Eco-marathon, the idea of “Autonomous Driving” will be realized and our team is going to compete against other selected top-teams. Several new challenges accompany the new competition. Next to five different autonomous disciplines in which muc018 has to compete, the biggest challenge is the development of an holistic vehicle concept. Our autonomous system is a vital part of the concept development and it was important for us really integrate all components fully into the our new muc018. This means every component is developed modular and can be removed easily from the vehicle. This modular concept enables us to excel at the autonomous disciplines without having a weight disadvantage at the traditional efficiency competition.

March 20th, 2018: The day of the Rollout. The last few weeks of sleepless nights and tired days paid off. The car has been constructed and is waiting to be in the spotlight of the MVG Museum. During the final preparations the excitement and tension in the team becomes more and more overwhelming. Every single member spent the last few months pouring every bit of energy, time and dedication into this project and can’t wait to present it to family, friends and of course our sponsors.

In the middle of the old trams of the MVG Museums as well as the futuristic prototypes of the previous Eco Teams and the direct predecessor muc17 the big moment finally arrives. Accompanied by applause and under the proud eyes of the team muc18 rolls up to the stage by itself where it is celebrated by guests and sponsors alike.

Despite all this euphoria we can afford only a short brake before we begin with our test-runs for the best results possible in the upcoming competitions.

After the victory at the EducEco in France on May 21st, there was not much time for the TUfast Eco Team to rest. On the same evening, we travelled to London, as we needed the following days for getting prepared for the upcoming Shell Eco-marathon. Compared to France, the competition in London had a noticeable stronger international focus. 171 teams from Europe and Africa were using the good weather as an opportunity to test their vehicles for the valuation runs at the weekend. Even – or especially after the shocking news of the terror attack in Manchester, the students of 24 different nations were still willing to send a symbol for international communication and friendship.

But even if there was a lot of talking and laughing besides the track, during the race and while working in the workshops, all teams were extremely ambitious to get the last mile out of their cars.

After a good testing phase, some troubles appeared and after the first valuation run on Friday the 26th it became clear: The motor controller got damaged and had to be replaced. Despite the heavy setback, the team was still optimistic and willing to show their capabilities. It moved heaven and earth and, finally, two spare controllers got flown in from Germany in the middle of the night. After an exhausting nightshift, the team had to stay focused. The competitors already scored with good results and TUfast Eco Team didn´t have a valid run, yet. The excitement was at a peak, when muc017 finally rolled to the starting line to manage ten laps on the challenging track. Beside dealing with a slope, especially stopping and restarting each lap– which should simulate the urban stop and go traffic – was a challenge for every Urban Concept. When muc017 – after travelling almost 16 km in 39 minutes – finally crossed the finish line, all were happy and when the positioning got public the team started cheering. mu017, a vehicle which was constructed, manufactured and build in only 10 months got second at the Shell Eco-marathon 2017. Only the winner of the last years, ISEN Toulon from France, got a better result.
Despite this remarkable success – which we owe our families, friends and most notable our faithful sponsors, the team is itching to return next year even more successfully.
We are not saying goodbye forever. London – see you next year! #neverendingdrive

Studenten der Technischen Universitaet Muenchen testen ein ECO-Elektrofahrzeug in einer Halle des Flughafens Muenchen / Flughafen Muenchen / Muenchen / 10.05.2017
Foto: Stephan Goerlich / FMG

After only a few test kilometers at the campus in Garching, as well as at the Munich Airport and the Audi Test track at the Munich Airport, the team packed everything and left for the first competition on May 18. The competition welcomed them with continuous light rain. No problem for muc017 which has to be water resistant due to the competition rules. On the first day, the team manged to pass the mechanical part of the technical inspection – only the electric system was not rules compliant. After a nightshift in the paddocks the team went to the technical inspection on Saturday morning for the electrical check-up. After admission the team had to wait until afternoon for the next open slot for the urban concept category. In the meantime the team prepared muc017 for the first run and the given track conditions: On May 20 at 5p.m. muc017 stared for the first official run. Due to an incident muc017 had to come to a full stop. A track marshal reacted immediately and gave muc017 a push, although we could have started again on our own. Nevertheless, Lasse Trockel, our driver at that run, finished the run without any further problems. But due to the push this run was not valid. Disappointed from recent action the team attended the Off-Track Award ceremony where the mood was changed into euphoria after the team was awarded with three Off-Track Awards in total.  muc017 was awarded with a special mention for the best powertrain, best driving strategy and the technical innovation award for several innovations in muc017.

Powered by the awards the team worked through the night to achieve a higher efficiency for the next and final run.
On Sunday, May 21, the car which was developed within only 10 months should get the honour to have a valid run and Lasse Trockel gave his best to make it real. About an hour after the start Lasse and muc017 crossed the finish line and the judges counted the run as valid. Yet, the final score was not announced, so the team had to wait for some more hours. But it didn’t matter at that time the team was happy to achieve a valid run with the first Urban Concept vehicle ever built by the team.
A few hours later the final award ceremony took place and the final result of the TUfast Eco Team was announced to call the team to the stage: 194km per kWh or computed in a fuel equivalent 1689km per litre Super 95! But the team not only won the urban concept category for battery electric vehicles furthermore they have won the Grand Prix of the urban concept category.
In total, the team together with muc017 has won 5 prices and many new experiences which could help them to continue their success at the Shell Eco-marathon in London this week. #neverendingdrive

We proudly present our new vehicle muc017.

On Wednesday, the 5th of April 2017, the official presentation of our Urban Concept took place at MVG Museum, just as in the previous year. Framed by historic streetcars, the star of the evening was shining even more.
As every year, we were looking forward to this evening full of expectations and couldn’t wait to show the public, what we were working on for such a long time. The season began exciting, with the change to the Urban Concept category in July and of course everybody was curious, how we managed these new challenges. During the construction and the manufacturing phase, we experienced several minor and major problems and differences to the construction of a prototype vehicle. For example, we had to give up on the idea of a full carbon monocoque due to the size of the new vehicle and instead look into different opportunities of attaching the body parts together. Also seemingly simple parts, such as the windshield viper and the door hinge had their issues that had to be resolved.

Finally, we were able to manage all the challenges and all the work was forgotten, when we finally revealed muc017 together onstage. Together with our sponsors, families and friends, we were celebrating this special moment until the late evening.

Now we devote ourselves with full power to the perfection of the car – eventually, there is a little more than a month left for testing and resolving small problems, until the competition phase begins.

For more pictures of the evening see here.

The new year started as productive for us as the old ended. Already before Christmas, our manufacturers surprised us with the first components and the holidays were barely over, when the team members were returning and taking up the work again. So, the first chassis components left the oven and got demolded even before the lectures started again.

For the completion of the carbon works, we are still waiting for the last forms from our milling cutters, but from week to week our vehicle gets more recognizable. Additionally, small vehicle parts such as the mirrors are back from manufacturing and our guys provide the final touches.
Meanwhile, the running gear guys successfully tested the first components on stability and functionality and perform some post-production work.
Finally, also the drive train team has been advancing work with full power. The circuit diagrams and layouts of our boards are completed and now the focus moves on to the software development.

In general, the manufacturing phase of our Urban Concepts is progressing quickly and very successfully and we can hardly wait to present the vehicle in April and of course prove our work on the race track!

New Season, new concept! This year, we decided against designing a prototype for the Shell Eco-marathon. Instead, we take on a new challenge and move on to the Urban Concept class.
We can look back to many successful years within the Prototype class. Every year we worked on a new and better vehicle and surpassed ourselves technically. This summer, our efforts culminated in the record for the most efficient vehicle of the world. For some, this would be a reason to slow down a little bit and start focusing only on incremental improvements of our existing eLi16. This was never a real option for us – it was obvious that we had to find a new challenge. The decision fell on the entry to the “Urban Concept” – class.

But why exactly did we choose Urban Concept?

For quite a long time, we were playing around with ideas regarding a more realistic vehicle. We wanted to dive deeper into the world of automotive development. The Urban Concept category enables us to do so. Now, we can realize all the ideas, team members already collected and discussed for years. Most of them could not be implemented in former vehicles because of the strict focus on efficiency. Especially for many of our long-standing team colleagues, a small dream will be fulfilled.
Additionally, we strongly believe, that electric vehicles are the future of mobility. An Urban Concept now allows us to take another step towards this vision. We want to contribute to creating awareness for the all possibilities and the importance of “green” mobility.

And what is Urban Concept exactly?

Why is it so exciting and innovative? An Urban Concept differs in many important points from a Prototype because the focus moves away from sheer efficiency to at least limited road suitability. Basically, it is still all about creating a high efficient vehicle but additionally aligning the development and design with real live conditions and requirements. This means amongst others an upright seating position, a better weather resistance, a complete light system, the use of side door design and many things more.

After one year of preparation we achieved our goal: On Saturday, July 16 2016 our world record team undertook the official world record attempt and set a new high mark for vehicle efficiency. The team started at the break of dawn to prepare everything in time at the test track that our long-standing sponsor Audi had reserved for us. Last tests done on the previous day had us hoping for a good chance at reaching our own goal of 1000km/kWh.

As vehicle for the world record attempt we chose eLi14, which we had built for the 2014 season. We saw it as the ideal candidate because it has aerodynamic advantages to our more current models (which are built to newer version of the Shell Eco Marathon competition rules) but is still very light and has a flexible running gear train. Based on our experiences with eLi15 and eLi16 we tuned up eLi14. Our custom-built motor controller with optimised acceleration and speed simulation, new rims with extremely low friction bearing, a motor with optimised magnet placement and silver wire coils for reduced ohmic losses and an aerodynamically optimised top cover without solar cells were all fitted into eLi14. One nostalgic reason also played a part in choosing eLi14 – at the competitions of the 2014 season, due to disqualifications and technical problems we could not achieve the car’s full potential.

After the track had been inspected and the vehicle was thoroughly checked over by the judges from Guinness World Records as well as Professor Herzog of Technical University Munich and Manfred Schedl of TQ Systems / Robodrive we were able to start our first attempt at 9:30am. After the successful “Installation Lap” the first start attempt gave us a good shock: the motor produced only stutters. The problem was found and fixed quickly as it was simply the control card of the motor controller that was loose. Shortly afterwards the energy measurement device was once again properly sealed by the judges and we were able to start. Gently eLi14 accelerated to the preset speed to cover the necessary distance of 25 km/h within one hour. This average speed thus complies with that of the Shell Eco-marathon.

60 tense minutes followed – any technical problem, however small, could have cost precious time. But eLi14 completed lap for lap with constant timing and despite turning off the motor early rolled almost a kilometer past the finish line. This demonstration of its enormous glide capability gave us hope for the result. But first the judges had to read off the result and do their calculations to confirm it. We received the first result: 1142 km/kWh. We were ecstatic at this result, eclipsing the goal we had set ourselves by far!

But we knew this was not the end. The conservative first run had to be improved. At once we modified the speed control, changed the rear tire and increased tire pressure. The acceleration profile was also redone and we calculated a new earlier motor shutoff point based on the vehicle’s glide.

The second run completed without any hitches and despite stronger wind was a significant improvement. The final result: 81.16 Wh/100km, equivalent to 1232 km/kWh or 10956 km per litre of 95 octane gasoline (by caloric value). In units more familiar to motorists that is about 0.009l per 100km or, for the United States, 26135mpg.

We proudly received the Guinness World Record certificate and we now proudly hold the title of “most efficient electric vehicle”. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our sponsors whose engagement enabled us to undertake this endeavour.

Press links:

• http://www.gizmag.com/tufast-student-ev-team-record/44478/