It was a cold, dark morning in Brighton and 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill was standing by his car in fifth position on the grid. His car was primed, engine started and he was ready to compete. But this was no ordinary race. Damon Hill’s challenge was to drive 62 miles from Brighton to London using the least energy possible.

He was taking part in the Brighton to London Future Car Challenge for the Global Fuel Economy Initiative. In its second year, the Future Car Challenge is a showcase event for a range of different technologies, with entrants driving a variety of different vehicles – electric cars, hybrids, hydrogen powered and conventional internal combustion engines.

The GFEI had sponsored and entered the Future Car Challenge in order to promote improvements in vehicle fuel economy and cuts in CO2 emissions which can be made using cost effective technologies already in widespread use.

In taking part in the Future Car Challenge the GFEI was placing a particular emphasis on achieving further improvements in fuel economy with the conventional internal combustion engine (ICE), and making those improvements available to all drivers, not just here in the UK, but worldwide. 

Damon drove a Peugeot 508 Active e-HDi in the Challenge. He said: “I’m usually associated with high speed motorsport, but today was very different we went off at the start-line at Brighton driving slowly trying to conserve as much fuel as possible.

“It was great to drive for the Global Fuel Economy Initiative. It’s clear that worldwide, we need to use much less fuel. We need to see manufacturers producing much more fuel efficient cars, and they need to be as widely available as possible. Today’s drive was very interesting – you have to adopt a completely different driving style and this event played a really important role in raising awareness on fuel economy.”

Entering the Challenge exclusively for the GFEI, Damon Hill is not backing any specific make of car, or fuel economy technology. As a partnership of international agencies, the GFEI is also entirely independent of any manufacturer.

The GFEI wants to see new car fuel consumption worldwide cut by 50% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, and the same cut across the entire global fleet by 2050. This would mean by 2030 average new car fuel economy could be improved to close to 4l/100 km (60mpg) with a reduction of CO2 emissions from 186 gCO2/km on average to 93 gCO2/km. It wants to see the same improvement in all cars by 2050.