Bulgaria's eleventh participation in The Eco-marathon Europe is supported by the National Commission of UNESCO for the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as local authorities from participating cities.

The Eco-marathon Europe 2018 will take place in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, UK, from July 5-8, 2018. It is one of the world’s leading energy efficiency competition programmes.

Students are challenged to design, build and test energy-efficient cars, pushing the boundaries of what is technically possible. They take their designs to the track in the Mileage Challenge to see which vehicle can compete to go the farthest on the least amount of fuel. After a year of preparation, young engineers have just a few days to carry out tests in urban circuits, driving self-built cars for energy efficiency.

Bulgarian participants in this year's Eco-marathon presented their energy-efficient cars at an event in Sofia on June 7th. It was a true celebration of engineering and innovation, and students shared curious facts about their cars, technological changes and innovations. The teams made demonstrations and showed an impetus for winning the competition for innovative energy solutions for transport due in London next month.

Bulgaria will be represented by four teams at the finals of the The Eco-marathon 2018 international competition. The teams of the Technical University of Sofia and the new HydRu team at "Angel Kanchev" University of Rousse will compete in the "Urban Type" category. The long-standing team of "Angel Kanchev" University of Rousse “Avtomobilist” and the team of the "N. J. Vaptsarov" Vocational High School of Agriculture, Forestry and Tourism, Chepelare, will join the race in the “Prototypes" Category. 

The participation of Bulgarian teams in Eco-marathon this year is marked by a number of innovations.

The team of the Technical University Sofia celebrates its tenth participation with several innovations of its “Phoenix", "Urban type" Category, including an entirely new propulsion system, a new electric power regeneration system for braking and a new braking system.

The team from "N. J. Vaptsarov" Vocational School of Agriculture, Forestry and Tourism in Chepelare has developed a new telemetry system and has pledged a new aerodynamic design of the "STORM-K” prototype.

The long-standing team of the University of Rousse “Avtomobilist” has entrusted its presentation to two women. In their hands will be a completely new carbon prototype lightened by 40% compared to the previous prototype of the team. The air resistance of DTT 3, as the name of the car, is reduced thanks to its new aerodynamics.

The management of the new HydRu team at the University of Rousse is divided into two parts - the steering is entirely mechanical and the steering wheel is driven by a lever system. The drive is electronically controlled by potentiometers and controllers that regulate the amount of current that reaches the electric motors.

Among the official guests at the event for the presentation of the cars were H.E. Emma Hopkins, British Ambassador to Bulgaria, and H.E. Bea ten Tusscher, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Bulgaria, who welcomed the participants with the words: