A group of global energy and petrochemical company, Shell, held an international car competition for students, namely Shell Eco-Marathon (SEM) Asia 2017. SEM is a yearly competition for students car innovation to push the boundaries of energy efficiency. This year, SEM ASIA was held in Changi Exhibition Center, Singapore from March 15 until March 19, 2017, which was attended by as many as 123 teams from 20 countries.
This year, UGM Semar Team was back to the competition after a break for 4 years. UGM Semar Team presented one of their best cars, Semar Urban, which succeeded to pass all of the selection stages. They pass the first stage, namely scrutineering, smoothly. The second stage was practice and race. They were given five chances to race and Semar Urban made a good achievement by 186 km/Liter as their best score which led them to be the 7th rank in Internal Combustion Engine class for Urban Concept category.
SEM Asia also held Drivers’ World Championship (DWC) that competed for the velocity of Urban Concept cars which were included in the highest rank of fuel efficiency for every class. This was the second DWC held by Shell. The top three winners of DWC in Asian Region will represent Asia in the Drivers’ World Championship in London.
Muhammad Fachmi, Head of UGM Semar Team, said they became one of 14 teams with the highest efficiency which were selected to participate in DWC for Asia Region. DWC consisted of several stages. The first stage was dynamic brake test and they passed it smoothly. The second stage was qualification stage to select the eight best teams both from International Combustion Engine and Battery Electric classes for further competing in the final race to select the three fastest cars.
“UGM Semar Team had succeeded to pass all of the selection stages,” said Fachmi on Monday (17/4).
At the qualification stage, UGM Semar Team achieved the fifth position in the start position for the final race. Unfortunately, in the final race, they had a technical problem which caused Semar Urban car not finish the four laps. Nevertheless, they were proud of being the participant of DWC final race considering this was their first competition after four year’s absence. Therefore, UGM Semar Team has a huge potential to compete again and become the winner of SEM Asia 2018 because they could be one of the eight best teams which could participate in the DWC final race of SEM Asia 2017.
Fachmi said SEM Asia 2017 is a learning arena for them because they have to do more preparation and improvement for the next competitions. “After doing improvement, we will be ready and optimistic to compete in SEM Asia 2018,” he added.