Shell GameChanger and Local Motors Announce Grand Prize Winner of D.R.I.V.E.N., a Competition to Design for Future Mobility

PHOENIX, March 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- In January 2012, Local Motors, working with Shell's GameChanger program announced DRIVEN - Design of Relevant and Innovative Vehicles for Energy Needs – a vehicle design competition seeking innovative transportation solutions to address mobility challenges on Local Motors' The Forge (forge.local-motors.com), an online, open co-creation forum. This challenge focused on five world cities including Amsterdam, Bangalore, Basra, Houston and Sao Paulo. 

Designers from around the globe were invited to design a future mobility vehicle for at least one of the cities and the submitted entries needed to incorporate locally available energy sources and construction materials as well as solve a local and relevant social issue.   The outcome of this challenge includes over 170 unique concepts; all designed with the intention of meeting current and future transportation needs. According to Local Motors' CEO, John B. Rogers, Jr., "Shell GameChanger and D.R.I.V.E.N. has been an enormous inspiration to Local Motors' community of designers and engineers.  This community thrives on complex challenges, and designing vehicles for future mobility with local energy and material resources fit the bill."

Members of the Local Motors online community voted to choose the top design per city, each of which earned 2,000USD and LM gear. From these top five designs chosen by the LM community, a panel of Shell judges then chose the Grand Prize Winner, Paulo Encarnacao's "LM Urban Pod" designed for Sao Paulo, awarding an additional 5,000USD.  GameChanger will build the "LM Urban Pod" into a 1/4 scale model and show it around the globe. 

Mandar Apte, Project Manager and GameChanger at Shell International Exploration and Production Inc. considers this project a great success.  Mandar stated, "GameChanger is invigorated and excited to explore the future potential of using the wisdom of the crowds and co-creation to solving world issues. All the designs of vehicle concepts submitted during the competition represent high creativity and talent, especially those that got the top community-voted vehicles for each region. The Sao Paolo 'LM Urban Pod' design concept by Paulo Encarnacao is a very novel yet practical and doable solution to address the local transportation challenges. Our intention is to build a 1/4 scale model of this concept. We appreciate the efforts of all the community members in participating in DRIVEN. It represents a great example of how to leverage the wisdom of the crowd and co-create solutions to address the energy challenges we face."

Here are the winners:
Grand Prize Winner, LM Urban Pod for Sao Paulo by Paulo Encarnacao
http://forge.local-motors.com/pages/project.php?cg=8729
Prize: 7,000USD + LM Gear + Opportunity to see design made into 1/4th scale model. 

Winners Per City

Amsterdam – "Extensor" by Marc Senger of Boston, USA  
http://forge.local-motors.com/pages/project.php?cg=8773
Prize: 2000USD + LM Gear

Bangalore – "Little Fish" by Marcello of Italy
http://forge.local-motors.com/pages/project.php?cg=8687
Prize:  2000USD + LM Gear

Basra – "TUB Transport Urban Basra" by designer David Leetz of Denton, Texas USA
http://forge.local-motors.com/pages/project.php?cg=8663
Prize: 2000USD + LM Gear

Houston – "Houston Bvora" by Stoianov Sebastian Mihai of Romania
http://forge.local-motors.com/pages/project.php?cg=8742
Prize:  2000USD + LM Gear

Sao Paulo - GRAND PRIZE WINNER – "LM Urban Pod" by Paulo Encarnacao of Portugal
http://forge.local-motors.com/pages/project.php?cg=8729
Prize: 7,000USD + LM Gear + Opportunity to see design made into 1/4th scale model. 

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 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 www.shell.com/gamechanger.

About Local Motors

Local Motors is a new American car company setting an exciting and sustainable course to design, manufacture, and sell cars for niche markets. Local Motors co-creates new purposeful vehicles and components with its community of 14,000 designers, engineers and enthusiasts using open source principals.  Anyone can join the Local Motors community at www.local-motors.com to assist in designing and engineering of new, innovative vehicles, and anyone can help choose which vehicles are produced and available for purchase.  Local Motors shares all vehicle data to allow easier modification, home builds or creation of new components to fit existing vehicles.  Local Motors does not sell kits. Customers get to build their co-created vehicle at the Local-Motors Micro Factory with professional assistance.  The build is completed during 2, 3-day build weekends. Local Motors has been recognized for its groundbreaking approach to automotive development, appearing in articles in Popular Science, Wired and Popular Mechanics and was featured on the Discovery Channel.

Now any individual, company or organization can co-create vehicles, parts and accessories through Local Motors' co-creative challenge-based platform called "The Forge"; email [email protected] for details.

Cautionary Note

The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate entities. In this press release "Shell", "Shell group" and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. ''Subsidiaries'', "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this press release refer to companies in which Royal Dutch Shell either directly or indirectly has control, by having either a majority of the voting rights or the right to exercise a controlling influence. The companies in which Shell has significant influence but not control are referred to as "associated companies" or "associates" and companies in which Shell has joint control are referred to as "jointly controlled entities". In this press release, associates and jointly controlled entities are also referred to as "equity-accounted investments". The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect (for example, through our 24% shareholding in Woodside Petroleum Ltd.) ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest.

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''anticipate'', ''believe'', ''could'', ''estimate'', ''expect'', ''goals'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''objectives'', ''outlook'', ''plan'', ''probably'', ''project'', ''risks'', ''seek'', ''should'', ''target'', ''will'' and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell's 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2011 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov ). These factors also should be considered by the reader.  Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release, March 20, 2012. Neither Royal Dutch Shell nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this press release that United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC.  U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov. You can also obtain these forms from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330.

SOURCE Shell

WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM?

440k+
Newsrooms &
Influencers

9k+
Digital Media
Outlets

270k+
Journalists
Opted In

GET STARTED