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The TUCer Team of the Technical University of Crete achieved an outstanding second-place finish, winning the silver medal at the Shell Eco-marathon Poland 2026, held from 24 to 28 June 2026 in Poland. This marks the highest ranking ever achieved by a Greek team in the competition's 41-year history.
The TUCer delegation consisted of Technical University of Crete students Konstantinos Athanasopoulos and Dimitrios Rammos from the School of Production Engineering and Management, and Andreas Vythoulkas and Georgios Syntychakis from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The team was accompanied by Dr. Savvas Piperidis, Laboratory Teaching Staff at the School of Production Engineering and Management and the team's supervisor.
On Friday, 26 June 2026, the team successfully completed the technical inspection of both the vehicle and its drivers, receiving the much-anticipated approval to enter the track and compete.
TUCer competed in the Hydrogen Urban Concept category and, despite the extreme heatwave affecting part of Europe, successfully completed two valid race attempts. Their final attempt proved to be their best performance, securing second place overall.
Due to the exceptionally high temperatures, with ambient temperatures exceeding 40°C every day, the race schedule was condensed for safety reasons. It is worth noting that of the ten teams competing in the category, only three successfully completed the event, as the extreme weather conditions posed an unprecedented challenge for all participants.
TUCer driver Dimitrios Rammos completed the team's final race attempt while enduring a cockpit temperature of 47°C. Including the pre-race inspections and post-race performance measurements, he remained inside the vehicle for approximately one hour.
To mitigate the effects of the extreme heat, the team covered the vehicle with reflective material during the fourth and fifth days of the competition—a strategy that was subsequently adopted by several other teams.
The official competition results are available on the event's website:
Since 2007, the TUCer (Technical University of Crete Eco Racing) team has been designing, building, and racing prototype ultra-energy-efficient, zero-emission vehicles powered by hydrogen. The team consists of students and research staff of the Technical University of Crete who share a vision of environmentally friendly mobility and a passion for motorsport.
The founding and permanent members of the team are Professor Nikolaos Tsourveloudis and Laboratory Teaching Staff members Savvas Piperidis and Polychronis Spanoudakis. Since 2020, Assistant Professors Eleftherios Doitsidis and Dimitrios Ipsakis have also been members of the team.
With this year's participation in Poland, TUCer has now competed in the international Shell Eco-marathon fifteen (15) times. The 2026 competition proved to be the most demanding in the team's history due to the extreme weather conditions. It should also be emphasized that the Hydrogen Urban Concept category in which the team competes is considered the most demanding, complex, and technically challenging category of the competition.
The Rectorate of the Technical University of Crete warmly congratulates the TUCer Team on this remarkable achievement and on its outstanding journey to date, which reflects the dedication, ingenuity, technical excellence, selflessness, and integrity of its members.
