
Fuel efficiency is crucial when you are selecting a car and these days, the automobile industry is working towards cars that are more and more fuel efficient. However, we doubt any of them will be able to reach the bar that has been set by French students of La Joliverie College in Nantes, western France.

Their invention known as the Microjoule is perhaps the most efficient car ever built with a weight of 35 Kg only. This car was built as a part of the Shell European Eco-Marathon Contest. The contest was conducted to ascertain which is the most fuel efficient vehicle in the world. The French team one, beating 200 other contestants, with their vehicle travelling for 2,072 miles while using only 1 liter of fuel, yup; over two thousand miles in only one liter of fuel.

The car was tested on a track in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. If you were to drive the Microjoule around the world, it will cost you about $26. One of the French student stated; ‘The car has an internal combustion engine and runs on ordinary fuel. It weighs 35 kg and is made entirely of carbon fiber. It offers very low rolling resistance and air resistance, and a very low drag coefficient. For example, when you spin the wheels, they will keep rotating for several miles without ever stopping.’

The car has a shape, which resembles that of a water droplet with a nose area of 3.3 sq. foot in order to achieve optimized aerodynamics. The car can run on petrol as well as ethanol. The minimum weight of the driver, however, has to be 50 Kg. With the fuel prices rising and fuel reserves diminishing, cars like the Microjoule will soon be out in the market, or we all could go electric!

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