Eden Prairie student part of winning experimental vehicle team

Luke Marvin of Eden Prairie, a ninth grader at Saint Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, is a member of the Saint Thomas Academy Experimental Vehicle Team, which took first place in two divisions at the 2024 Shell Eco-marathon Americas competition, held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 4-7. The team took home $6,000 total for winning the two divisions.

“Entering two cars in the competition gave the large team more hands-on opportunities to design, build and drive the vehicles,” said Sara Krivak, co-moderator of the team. “This year’s team has several new and younger members, who did an amazing job learning the ins and outs of building a vehicle. Overall, we are thrilled with our performances against many engineering powerhouses at both the collegiate and high school levels.”

In the battery-electric prototype division, the team’s vehicle traveled 276 miles/kWh, besting the second-place team from Dunwoody College of Technology by 28 percent at 198 miles/kWh. The team also surpassed its result of 254 miles/kWh in the 2023 competition. This year’s battery-electric prototype division included more than 30 college and high school teams from the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Brazil.

The hydrogen fuel cell urban concept vehicle took first in the division with a record-setting 146.7 miles per cubic meter of hydrogen. This year’s team traveled 28.7 miles further than the 2023 team, which had set the previous record in the division. Saint Thomas Academy fielded the only hydrogen fuel cell urban concept vehicle to clear all 12 technical inspections and proceed to the track. Saint Thomas Academy was also the only high school team in the division.

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