Shell unveils ultra-efficient city car

The Shell Concept Car – developed through an initiative known as Project M  - is the result of close collaboration between engineers at Shell Lubricants; legendary Formula 1 designer Gordon Murray; and Geo Technology, a specialist automotive firm established by former Honda F1 director Osamu Goto.

As previously reported by The Engineer the project set out to demonstrate that by designing a car from scratch, and employing a “co-engineering” process whereby vehicle body, engine design and lubricants are all created together, it should be possible to achieve huge efficiency savings.

According to Shell, if the new concept car were to go into full production it would use around half of the energy usually required to build and run than a typical small family car.

Based on Gordon Murray Design’s T.25 city car, which was produced in 2010 and built around Murray’s iStream production process, the car weighs 550kg and is with materials that have a low energy and CO₂ footprint. A number of the car’s components were created using 3D printing to accelerate the construction of this prototype vehicle. It also uses recycled carbon fibre for its body that can be assembled for a quarter of the price of a conventional steel car and almost the entire car can be recycled at the end of its life.