Students from Université Laval (www.ulaval.ca), in Quebec, which have made a ‘prototype’ petrol-powered car that achieved the equivalent of 2,713.1mpg, took home the big prize at this year’s Shell Eco-marathon Americas.

The competition sees university students design a prototype car using various fuels, in an attempt to maximise efficiency on a test track.

Laval’s win follows a victory in the 2016 competition in which it built a car that managed to achieve a fuel efficiency of 2,585mpg.

The year before, University of Toronto students took the top spot with a mind-boggling 3,421mpg. More than 1,200 students comprising 115 teams from North and South America participated in the competition.

The Laval team entered their car in the Prototype category, which gives designers the most leeway in how they achieve fuel efficiency.

The other category was UrbanConcept, which added the constraint that each car must be “roadworthy” and meet the needs of real drivers. Each category also had sub-categories for different fuel types: petrol, diesel, electric, hydrogen fuel cell, and liquid fuel made from natural gas or ethanol.

To test their cars, each team had to drive 10 laps (or six miles) of the test circuit. They also had to maintain an average speed of 15mph.