BTU student team Lausitz Dynamics on course for the Shell Eco-marathon 2026

After achieving an excellent second place in the hydrogen-powered prototype category this year, a student team from BTU will once again put their skills to the test in the 2025/26 season in a friendly competition with students from universities across Europe and Africa. The Shell Eco-maraton Poland 2026 will take place from 24 to 28 June on the Silesia Ring in Kamień Śląski. The BTU Lausitz Dynamics team is aiming for first place, i.e. to win the title, or at least to qualify for the 2027 Global Championship in Qatar.

Under the project management of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sylvio Simon, the new 20-strong team includes dual students from the third semester of the Bachelor's degree programme in Electrical Engineering in particular. Steven Wenzke and Nick Kucher act as team managers. The two drivers are Bachelor's students Lena Berthold from Materials Chemistry and Thi Ha An Le from Nursing Science. BTU staff members Sindy Schmidt and Shadi Sykora will provide technical supervision.

Innovations from Lusatia for the international competition
Preparations for the next race of the self-developed energy-saving vehicles are already in full swing. During the lecture-free period, parts of the Lausitz Dynamics team were able to test a model of the vehicle in the wind tunnel of the Application Centre for Fluid Dynamics at the BTU's main campus in collaboration with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Egbers and Dr.-Ing. A roll-out test was also carried out with the vehicle. Both tests made a decisive contribution to verifying previous simulations of rolling and wind resistance.

The Lausitz Dynamics team intends to further improve the results for its HydroRaycer vehicle this season with a series of measures. These include optimising the fuel cell drive, the gearbox design and the chassis. There are also plans for special driver training during test drives at the DEKRA Lausitzring in Klettwitz and, for the first time, in a customised simulation environment.
With further optimisations or completely new approaches, the prototype will be refined again this year by the students. In doing so, they learn to think creatively and with a view to the future. They deal with sustainability and teamwork, acquire new expertise and ultimately assert themselves in the competition with their work.

Renewed support from the region is very welcome
In particular, the BTU students' participation in the competition has been made possible in recent years thanks to sponsorship from local authorities and companies.
In addition to the test opportunity granted by DEKRA at the Lausitzring, LEAG Konferenzcenter Lübbenau has already pledged once again to support the students by providing the company's own passenger van for the trip to Poland.
"Of course, we are happy to receive any support in the form of donations and sponsorship for further travel costs and material purchases this season," says the student team.

Background
Since 2009, the Lausitz Dynamics student team at BTU's Campus Senftenberg has been working intensively on the development of energy-efficient vehicles and taking part in the Shell Eco-marathon. The aim of the competition is to research climate-neutral mobility and sustainable energy sources. The aim is to cover a given distance not at high speed, but with as little energy as possible. Outstanding milestones were first and third place in the Prototype Battery class in Rotterdam (Netherlands) in 2012 and 2014, third place in this class in Rockingham (UK) in 2015 and finally second place in the Prototype Hydrogen class on the Silesia Ring (Poland) in 2025.

Further information and future updates can be found on the official Instagram account "lausitz.dynamics" and at https://www.b-tu.de/lausitz-dynamics