In 2005, the students and researchers of Széchenyi István University in Győr established SZEnergy Team for the development of energy efficient electric vehicles. They’ve been participating in prestigious international competitions with excellent results e.g., in the solar cell category since 2008.
The 30-strong team has been developing electric vehicles for nearly 10 years. Their work is based on the coordinated efforts of four disciplines including engineering, electronics, autonomous vehicles and marketing. Excluding the two years of the pandemic, they took part in competitions every year. Their new vehicle developed in 2019 has been further improved for autonomous tasks since. It is now also prepared for competitions focusing not only on energy efficiency but also on autonomous capabilities. The teams’ efforts came to fruition in 2022 when in May they set a new world record with an energy balance of 284 km/kWh at Shell Eco-marathon, an international energy efficiency competition held in Holland. Now they are facing the next exciting challenge in France.
In early July, they will travel to the Shell Eco-marathon Autonomous Challenge organised for undergraduate engineering students where they will take part in four events of the small city vehicle category. They will present the financial background of the project, demonstrate their ability to run the whole race track in self-driving mode, perform an accurate parking manoeuvre and complete a slalom course.
One of the major tasks of the competition will be the vehicle’s accurate positioning for which they will use low-latency mobile internet correction data to improve the accuracy of GPS satellite signals. The internet connection required for this task will be provided to the SZEnergy Team by Yettel both during domestic testing and the competition held in France.
“Our latest developments aim to reduce weight and consumption in the first place. Our new electric motor enabling more intense acceleration than previous engines is of paramount importance. Our vehicle has also been given a facelift catching the eye with its striking yellow colour not only on the racetrack. The Autonomous Challenge in France will be the most important self-driving test of our vehicle so far”, said Team Leader Máté Miklós.