Vehicles of the future

By Julian Naderer How to build the world's most efficient vehicle? What materials are suitable? Is electromobility the mobility of the future? In the TERA team we deal with all these TERA TU Graz is a student team that develops energy-efficient vehicles. We are students of various Graz universities, and we work together because we want to educate ourselves further and because we want to help shape the future of mobility. What does the TERA team actually do? Since 2010 we've been competing very successfully in the Shell Eco Marathon - a student competition with the focus on economical driving - together with other European and international teams. With our battery-driven 'Fennek' models, we've always been among the best, and in 2014 we were able to set the world record for the most energy efficient automobile. The name Fennek comes from the extremely frugal desert fox 'fennec', the smallest species of canid or dog and whose habitat is the sandy deserts of North Africa. We are constantly developing things further in our workshop. In addition to competition vehicles, we are also building an electric car which has been given road approval, the IBEX. Our IBEX has been successfully tested on an ÖAMTC test track, and its components are being transferred from the original steel frame of the prototype to our new chassis, which is a carbon monocoque. We are constantly developing things further in our workshop. We are continually tinkering on the next generations of our vehicles, and it's very exciting to be part of the team. In competitions such as the Shell Eco Marathon, we're involved in practical trials, and we like to see how the others are doing. In London we want to show that the Fennek is one of the best in the world. What is the Shell Eco Marathon?