Electric car glory for ETH Zurich at Formula Student 2013

Swiss youngsters triumph at prestigious motorsport event

Science and technology university ETH Zurich stormed to glory with an electric car at Formula Student 2013.

It was the first time that an electric car has won the event.

The Swiss outfit took to the winner's podium after gaining an overall score of 921 points.

Second place went to Zwickau University, from Germany, who totalled 851 points.

The best-placed British university was the University of Huddersfield, who finished 15th, with 502.6 points.

The Formula Student competition, organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, challenged more than 2,000 university students from all over the world to design, build, cost, present and compete as a team with a small single-seat racing car in a series of static and dynamic competitions.

The event took place across the weekend at the famous Silverstone racetrack in Northamptonshire, attracting hundreds of motorsport fans. With temperatures topping 30C across, the competition saw some surprise results, with a number of well-fancied teams failing to complete Sunday’s Endurance event.

Jon Hilton, chairman of Formula Student, the success of ETH Zurich proved that electric cars had a real future within motorsport.

He said: “Electrically powered cars have made huge progress going from being unable to complete the 22 Km endurance event to winning overall in just five years. We are delighted by this progress but we will have to see what needs to be done in the future to ensure petrol cars remain competitive.”

Hilton said that Formula Student continued to go from strength-to-strength. “The standard of vehicles on display, and the ingenuity of the students who create them, never fails to amaze me.

“This year's competition showcased exactly why these men and women are among the world's best young engineers, and all who took part should feel very proud of what they achieved.”

1. ETH Zurich
2. UAS Zwickau
3. University of Stuttgart
4. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
5. TU Dresden
6. University of Padova
7. UAS Amberg-Weiden
8. UAS Graz
9. University of Kassel
10. University of Paderborn
11. TU Graz
12. UAS Kiel
13. Delft University of Technology
14. University of Stuttgart
15. University of Huddersfield
16. Chalmers University of Technology
17. University of Hertfordshire
18. Karlstad University
19. Norwegian University of Science and Technology 
20. University of Bath