Hungary’s First Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Racing Car Makes a Successful Debut at Shell Eco-marathon

Shell Eco-marathon is a global academic programme and one of the world’s leading student engineering competitions focused on energy efficiency. Rather than rewarding outright speed, its Mileage Challenge tests how efficiently vehicles can use energy, whether they are powered by conventional fuels, batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. The programme brings together thousands of students from educational institutions around the world.

The 2026 Polish event, attracting teams form Europe and Africa, was held at the Silesia Ring in Kamień Śląski from 24 to 28 June. Teams taking part in the Mileage Challenge drove a fixed number of laps, with their energy efficiency calculated after each valid attempt. The highest-performing teams in each vehicle category and energy class were ranked according to their results. Teams competing during the 2026 season also had the opportunity to qualify for the Shell Eco-marathon Global Championship.

Teams compete in two vehicle categories: Prototype and Urban Concept. Prototype vehicles are ultra-lightweight machines designed to achieve maximum efficiency and often resemble cigars on wheels. Urban Concept vehicles incorporate more familiar road-car features: they have four wheels and must meet requirements relating to elements such as lights, doors and luggage space. They may still look very different from conventional road cars, but they come considerably closer to them than the Prototype vehicles do.

Within both vehicle categories, teams enter one of three energy classes: Internal Combustion Engine, Battery Electric or Hydrogen Fuel Cell.

The BME SHARK Team, founded at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, has been a regular participant in Shell Eco-marathon for several years. Competing in the Prototype category with its diesel-powered vehicle Léna, the team finished 12th at the event in late June, having placed eighth the previous year. Based on its measured fuel consumption, the car could theoretically have travelled 692 kilometres on a single litre of fuel. The winning French team achieved an equivalent figure of 1,848 kilometres per litre.

This year, however, the Hungarian team also reached an important milestone in a different category. An Urban Concept hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle developed with the involvement of the Renewable Energy Research Group at the HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences (HUN-REN TTK) successfully passed the competition’s demanding Technical Inspection and subsequently completed three laps of the circuit.

Officially entered as BME HydroShark but known to the team simply as Luna, the vehicle was unable to complete the required distance within the prescribed time. Nevertheless, reaching the track was a considerable achievement in itself. The run demonstrated that the vehicle was operational and that its custom-built fuel-cell stack could charge the onboard supercapacitor, marking the successful creation of Hungary’s first hydrogen fuel-cell racing car.

Luna is a Hungarian design. It was assembled at BME and in the HUN-REN TTK laboratory, largely using components manufactured in Hungary. The Electrochemistry Laboratory of the Renewable Energy Research Group at HUN-REN TTK regularly tests fuel cells and develops key fuel-cell components, including catalysts, membranes and bipolar plates.

Both groups participated in the National Laboratory for Renewable Energy programme. Their collaboration also benefited greatly from the close proximity of the mechanical engineering students’ workshop and the fuel-cell laboratory, which made frequent face-to-face cooperation straightforward.

The project presented a considerable challenge, as no hydrogen fuel-cell racing car had previously been built in Hungary. The team made the task more ambitious still by deciding to design and build its own fuel-cell stack rather than use a commercially available system.

The story does not end here. Although Shell Eco-marathon Poland 2026 is over, the team has already begun developing ideas and experimenting with new fuel-cell components for next year’s competition.