SINGAPORE: Southeast Asia's first eco-car is all set to compete at an eco-marathon in France from 22 May to 24 May.

The ‘NUS-ECO1’ was built by six students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) from scratch. Measuring three-metres long and one metre high, the eco-car is significantly smaller than the usual sedan.

It is the first of its kind in Singapore and runs on a special ‘gas-to-liquids’ fuel, which is derived from natural gas and is cleaner than normal fuel.

With one litre of fuel, the car is able to run 100 kilometres, more than double the distance from Changi to Tuas.

This is an important statistic since the car will be tested on the distance it can travel and not its speed.

Yeo Yicong, Assistant Team Leader, Mechanical Engineering, NUS, said: "We have set ourselves a target of achieving 100 kilometres per litre using this car and I believe that's a very reasonable expectation to ask for, given that it's the first time we're going at this category.

"So hopefully, we can outdo the current result that we have - which is 100 - because when we did the testing, there are a lot of other things such as the body shell which is not in. And with that, we can improve on the aerodynamics. So hopefully, we will bring back some results for the school as well as for Singapore."

The NUS team will be competing against 53 teams from 15 countries in the category for urban eco-cars. - CNA/vm