A British team is in the final stages of designing its car for next year’s World Solar Challenge in the Australian desert.
This is the super-sleek shape a British team hopes can bring it glory in next year’s World Solar Challenge.
The 3,000km race through the Australian desert, from Darwin to Adelaide, is the classic test for innovators trying to push the boundaries of what is possible with a Sun-powered vehicle.
Solar Team Great Britain will be entering the event’s Cruiser Class, which puts the emphasis on practicality as well as efficiency.
The cars must carry passengers.
They cannot simply be some pencil-thin, ultra design that only a driver can squeeze into through a removable cockpit canopy.
“Cruiser Class is about two or more seats. It’s about a practical car,” said Steven Heape, who leads the team of volunteers behind Solar Team Great Britain.
“In many ways, it’s the class that goes back to the roots of the competition. It was envisaged as a design competition for cars that could run on the Sun, but extrapolating that forwards it meant we would ultimately get to the productionisation of solar vehicles.”
