TUM presents new electric racecar for Shell Eco Marathon

The goal was to build a highly efficient EV. And that is what the TUfast Eco student group said they did with the Muc023. The electric racecar will participate in the upcoming Shell Eco Marathon, where the vehicle with the least energy consumption will be crowned the winner.

The small electric runabout weighs 65 kilograms – ten kilos less than its predecessor. It also has a power output of 570 watts, a torque of 12.7 Nm and a drag coefficient of 0.13.

The team at TU Munich was able to reduce the weight, among other things, due to adjustments to the body and new wheel suspensions. The last one is about 40 per cent lighter than the Muc022 model. On the test bench, the permanent-magnet synchronous motors ran up to five per cent more economical than the previous model.

It is the fourth time that the TUM team will take part in the marathon. And it is doing so in the ‘Urban Concept’ category, in which the vehicles not only have to be efficient but also “have to bear a certain similarity to viable passenger cars and not have a pure prototype status”.

“They’re driven by their passion for competition. And their vehicle is an excellent example of what we’re about at TUM,” says TUM President Thomas F. Hofmann. “Leading-edge innovations which are realized in concrete applications and which are combined with social responsibility for more sustainability .”

The student team includes more than 80 members. Among them is the ‘Autonomous Team’, which also incorporated new technologies into the design of the vehicle. For example, a tree-based 3D occupancy map that uses various recognition technologies “to allow for long-range maneuver planning along close range detection”. This technology will also be further developed after the Shell Eco-Marathon.

tum.de, tufast-eco.de (Team)