Shell has unveiled a concept city car which could, it claims, deliver material reductions in energy use in the road transport sector. The company says the three-seater Shell Concept Car is tangible proof of energy efficiency improvements that can be achieved by using a process of “co-engineering” whereby vehicle body, engine design and lubricants are all created together. The car is a rethink of the Gordon Murray Design T.25 city car produced in 2010 based on the Murray iStream platform for which Shell produced a prototype oil to improve the vehicle’s energy efficiency.
Shell reports that independent testing and a rigorous life-cycle study show that its Concept Car would deliver a 34 per cent reduction in primary energy use over its entire lifecycle when compared to a typical city car available in the UK. The Shell Concept Car would use around half the energy required to build and run than a typical small family car available in the UK and 69 per cent less than that of a typical sports utility vehicle.
The car’s gasoline consumption has been measured using a range of vehicle testing protocols. Sample test results include a steady state consumption of 107 miles per gallon at 70kmph/45mph and an improvement of 4.67g CO2/km on the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) from the use of bespoke lubricants, equivalent to a 5 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency compared to standard lubricants available in the UK. In the formal NEDC test the Shell Concept Car produced lower CO2 emissions than both a typical petrol-powered city car (28%) and a hybrid car (32%).