Indonesian students have won awards for innovative urban fuel-save car design concepts at the inaugural Shell Eco-marathon Asia fuel-saving race at Sepang F1 circuit in Kuala Lumpur.

Team Keris and Team Pasoepati, both representing University of Indonesia (UI), were among five top teams that won the award, with the champion title taken by a team representing the National University of Singapore.

“We are surprised. We didn't think we could have won. We submitted a design that focus on simplicity;
while other teams have more complicated designs,” Pasoepati manager Rizky Arif Hidayat, who is a third year engineering student at UI, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The award recognizes innovative choice of material and technical feasibility design research in terms
of, among others, ergonomics, and  aesthetics.

The Indonesian teams took home a cash prize of US$200 (Rp 1.8 million) each from Autodesk Inc, a US-based software company – official sponsor of the Shell Eco-marathon Asia race.

The two teams are among nine teams representing Indonesia at the fuel-save racing, competing against more than 70 other teams from Asian countries.