A special hydrogen-powered car invented by Swiss scientists has set a new world record in economical fuel consumption, the official website swissinfo said Monday.

The PAC 11 car came in first at the recent Shell Eco-Marathon in Ladoux, France, completing a 25-km circuit using only one gram of hydrogen. This converts to about 5,385 km per liter of petrol, a new world record in economical fuel consumption. It means that PAC-Car would only use eight liters of petrol to drive around the globe.

At the marathon, 25 cars, traveling at a minimum average speed of 30 km per hour, competed for the best fuel efficiency title.

The PAC 11 car shell is made of carbon fiber materials, and weighs just 10 kg. The vehicle is nearly three meters long, half a meter wide and 61 centimeters high. It can reach a maximum speed of 35 km per hour.

The groundbreaking model was developed by a team of 20 mechanical engineering students at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Team leader Lino Guzzella outlined the winning formula: " Lightweight design, aerodynamics, controls, power electronics, chemistry -- the real hard engineering stuff."

The project's main sponsor was the Federal Energy Office of Switzerland, which hopes to promote energy efficient systems and renewable energy.

But experts estimate that Switzerland is decades away from developing the PAC-Car on a commercial scale, because hydrogen is not produced industrially and cannot be easily stored.

Source: Xinhua