The all-girls team Gernas 114 from Qatar University has won the region’s first hybrid-electric car challenge held this 
weekend in Abu Dhabi.
Sponsored by TAQA and hosted by the Petroleum Institute with support from Emirates Foundation for Youth Development, the event welcomed 120 students from 11 teams to the track.
Team Gernas 114 took home the champion title with an impressive score of 101 laps in the final race today. Their strategy proved to be the winning formula and crowned them 2014 TAQA GCC Hybrid-Electric Challenge champions.
Team leader Chresteen Fareed from Qatar University, said “We are so proud to be titled as champions of the first ever TAQA GCC Hybrid-Electric Challenge. Taking part in this event has been a great experience and has given us the chance to take what we have learnt in the classroom and apply it to a real life situation. It has been hard work and we have learnt a lot but most importantly we have had fun!”
120 students, both male and female were drawn from the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi University, UAE University, Khalifa University; the Masdar Institute; the Nizwa College of Technology in Oman; the College of Technological Studies in Kuwait; and Qatar. Each team has spent the past five months designing and constructing their single-seater, lightweight hybrid cars to stringent race design and safety rules.
The competition was split into two stages; the Electric Grand Prix (E-GP) and the Hybrid-Electric Grand Prix (HE-GP). The first stage, the E-GP saw the students driving their vehicles as far as possible in one hour, using only the energy stored in their batteries. During the second stage, held on the second day, the teams combined petrol and electric power to travel the maximum distance on the least amount of energy in three hours. The overall winning team has been determined by the combined results of both the E-GP and H-GP.
Dr Saif Al Sayari, Executive Officer and Head of Energy Solutions, TAQA, said “Congratulations to all of the teams who took part in the 2014 TAQA GCC Hybrid-Electric Challenge this weekend. Special congratulations go to the winning team. These past two days have been a great opportunity for all of the students involved. We at TAQA are thrilled and extremely proud to have brought the region’s first ever hybrid-electric car challenge to Abu Dhabi. The event has been a huge success and we hope to welcome more teams back to Abu Dhabi next year.”
Hundreds of people visited the event held at Al Forsan International Sports Resort on Thursday 30th and today, Friday 31st. A range of family activities and entertainment took place around the site, with a bouncy castle and play area, food and beverage stalls, as well as a “Think Science” area hosted by Emirates Foundation for Youth Development in the activation village. Spectators had the chance to meet the teams and find out about the cars and the challenges involved in building them.
Team Gernas 214 (all boys) from Qatar University came second and team MCT-Oman (all boys) from Oman’ Nizwa College of Technology came third. Besides being overall winners, the Qatari girls also won the final race today by achieving 101 laps in 3 hours with a best lap time of 88.4 seconds. The Qatari boys came a close second today in the final race and also achieved 101 laps with a best lap time of 90.23 seconds.
