Shell GameChanger DRIVEN Competition – “Design of Relevant and Innovative Vehicles for Energy Needs”
Fact Sheet
About Shell Oil Company and Local Motors’ Partnership
Shell Oil Company, a global energy giant, and Local Motors, a new American car company, have teamed up to host a design competition for vehicles that address energy resource and mobility challenges in five major cities around the world:
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Bangalore, India
- Basra, Iraq
- Houston, USA
- Sao Paolo, Brazil
Shell Oil Company, noted for developing breakthrough technologies for the oil and gas industry, is sponsoring the contest, called Design of Relevant and Innovative Vehicles for Energy Needs (DRIVEN). The competition’s organizer, Local Motors, is the first automotive co-creation community that designs and engineers unique, next-generation vehicles.
Shell GameChanger Goals for the DRIVEN Competition
Shell’s GameChanger program invests in people around the world, in or outside of Shell, with breakthrough ideas that address a demand or significant problem in the energy industry and helps them develop their ideas into a product that can be introduced to the marketplace. Since its establishment in 1996, GameChanger has brought over 150 innovations to the industry.
Mobility is fundamental to Shell’s business. Most of Shell’s consumers and business customers, from individual consumers to multinationals, use its products to enable some form of mobility. Worldwide population explosion, urbanisation, globalisation and technological innovation are driving changes in mobility. Globally, the number of cars is set to triple by 2050, increasing from around 700 million today. Added to this, over half the people in the world now live in urban areas. As we continue to move more people and things than ever before, demands on mobility will increase. Shell is constantly finding innovative ways to help move the world’s growing number of people and goods safely, efficiently and with reduced impact on the environment. Shell calls its approach Smarter Mobility ( Shell wants to help consumers and business customers meet their mobility needs through Smarter Products, Smarter Infrastructure and Smarter Use.
According to Dr. Wolfgang Warnecke, chief scientist, Shell Smarter Mobility. “Through our Smarter Mobility program, we are developing innovative products and technologies to help meet the world’s growing demand for transport with fewer CO2emissions.”
“We have a strong commitment to improving the quality of life in the communities where our employees live and work,” Russ Conser, Shell GameChanger manager, reports. “Three of the five locations were chosen because we have technology centers there, and we have major projects under way at the other two sites. Through this contest, we can plant the seed for innovative ways to address the unique mobility and energy resource challenges each of these locations face. We also want to encourage creative thinking among engineers who could potentially come to work at Shell some day.”
DRIVEN Design Brief Overview
Shell GameChanger is hosting its DRIVEN, Design of Relevant and Innovative Vehicles for Energy Needs, competition on Local Motors’ The Forge, an online, open co-creation forum for vehicular design and engineering. The DRIVEN competition invites the online community to submit innovative solutions to address key mobility challenges in selected geographies. Shell GameChanger is awarding $15,000 in total prizes for innovative vehicle designs that meet the criteria. In the DRIVEN Competition, 5 major cities around the world were chosen for their unique challenges for the future of mobility: Sao Paolo, Amsterdam, Basrah, Bangalore, Houston.
The competition is open to everyone. To participate, join the Local Motors community at
Local Motors CEO Jay Rogers states, “The Shell GameChanger DRIVEN competition is an unprecedented opportunity to show Shell, and the world, your concept on how you would address and solve some of the challenges facing the future of mobility through industrial design. The Local Motors collaborative community of 14,000 co-creators will really showcase how designers and engineers can think together about energy needs from a design standpoint.”
DRIVEN Competition Timeline
Jan 11: Soft Launch: DRIVEN Competition Teaser Video
Jan 11: Soft Launch Party in Paris, called Designer’s Night
Jan 17: DRIVEN Competition Launch
Jan 17: Submission Period for Competition Designs Opens
Feb 7: Submission Period Closes. Community Voting begins
March 4th (23:59:59 GMT): Community Voting Ends. Shell Judging Panel Selection Process Begins
March 6: Shell Judging Panel Selection Process Ends
March 13: Winning Entries are Announced, $15,000 in Prizes Awards
Competition Judging and Prizes
Five winners will be selected by the Local Motors online community to win $2,000 each for the most innovative solution in each of the five identified locations around the world. One grand prize winner will then be selected by Shell Oil Company’s panel of judges among these top five winners for the most innovative solution overall and receive an additional $5,000.
Interesting Facts
Global energy demand is estimated to double by 2050. To keep the pace with rising demand, the world will need to invest heavily in all energy sources – oil and natural gas, biofuels, solar, wind, nuclear power. (Source: Shell Smarter Mobility)
Globally, the number of cars is set to triple by 2050, increasing from approx. 700 million today to 2+ billion by 2050. (Source: Shell Smarter Mobility)
It is estimated that by year 2050, the world population will be around 9 Billion people — nearly 2 billion more people than today.
About Local Motors
Local Motors is a new American car company setting an exciting and sustainable course to design, manufacture, and sell cars, parts and accessories for niche markets. Local Motors is the first automotive co-creation community, and the first company to produce an open source vehicle. Founded less than 5 years ago, Local Motors is home to over 60,000 car design concepts, 14,000 community members, 20 full time employees, one production vehicle, the Rally Fighter, and one vehicle co-created for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Local Motors is known for building vehicles 10 times faster with 100 times less capital. Anyone can join the Local Motors community at to assist in designing and engineering of new vehicles.
Local Motors hosts co-creative design and engineer challenges for partners like Shell Oil through a collaborative platform called The Forge. For more details, email .
About Shell GameChanger
We believe some people cannot stop dreaming up ideas to make things better. However, dreaming is not enough to show an idea will work. For lack of money, a few connections, and perhaps a bit of guidance, many great ideas never get off the ground. This is where Shell GameChanger Programme can help. If you have a creative mind and believe that your innovative ideas can transform the energy industry, perhaps you should be speaking to us. We invest in novel, early-stage ideas and bring them to “proof of concept” and, if successful, work with you for further development and commercial deployment. We are looking for innovative ideas to more affordably, efficiently and cleanly develop and use today’s energy resources, or unlock the clean energy resources of tomorrow. Submit your ideas on
Media Contacts:
Local Motors
Ariel Ferreira
Local Motors
Mobile: (989) 600-0534
Shell Oil Company
Anne Feltus
Shell Oil Company
(281) 489-4655
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