The World Solar Challenge (WSC), since 2013 named Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, is an international event for solar powered cars driving 3000 kilometres through the Australian outback.
A compressed-air vehicle (CAV) is a transport mechanism fueled by tanks of pressurized atmospheric gas and propelled by the release and expansion of the gas within a pneumatic motor.
A solar vehicle or solar electric vehicle is an electric vehicle powered completely or significantly by direct solar energy. Usually, photovoltaic (PV) cells contained in solar panels convert the sun's energy directly into electric energy.
Nuna is the name of a series of crewed solar powered race cars that have won the World Solar Challenge in Australia seven times: in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2015 and 2017. The vehicles are built by students who are part of the "Brunel Solar Team" at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, sponsored by Brunel.
The Stanford Solar Car Project (SSCP) is a student group at Stanford University that designs, builds, tests, and races solar-powered vehicles. The SSCP, a student-run, donation-funded organization, has been building and racing solar-powered vehicles since 1986. It has competed and placed at The World Solar Challenge, the Global Green Challenge, and American Solar Challenge.
Sunswift Racing is the solar car racing team of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The team currently holds a number of world records and is best known for its participation in the World Solar Challenge (WSC). Since its founding in 1996 by Byron Kennedy, the Sunswift team has built a total of 7 cars, the most recent of which is Sunswift 7.
The University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project, or UMNSVP, is a team of undergraduate students from the University of Minnesota that designs and constructs solar-powered cars. In its 31 years, it has established itself as one of the world's top solar racing teams, and the top Cruiser/Multi-Occupant Vehicle team in the Western Hemisphere, with top-two finishes in eighteen of thirty-four events entered.
The 1993 Maize & Blue solar car was built by the University of Michigan Solar Car Team during the period from 1990 to 1993.
A solar car is a solar vehicle for use on public roads or race tracks. Solar vehicles are electric vehicles that use self-contained solar cells to provide full or partial power to the vehicle via sunlight. Solar vehicles typically contain a rechargeable battery to help regulate and store the energy from the solar cells and from regenerative braking. Some solar cars can be plugged into external power sources to supplement the power of sunlight used to charge their battery.
Solar car racing refers to competitive races of electric vehicles which are powered by solar energy obtained from solar panels on the surface of the car. The first solar car race was the Tour de Sol in 1985 which led to several similar races in Europe, US and Australia. Such challenges are often entered by universities to develop their students' engineering and technological skills, but many business corporations have entered competitions in the past. A small number of high school teams participate in solar car races designed exclusively for high school students.
The Cal State LA Solar Car Team was a group of engineering students at California State University, Los Angeles that developed the Solar Eagle series of solar cars that competed in solar car races in the United States and Australia.
The Sunseeker Solar Car Project, Sunseeker for short, is Western Michigan University's solar car team. Each vehicle is designed, built, maintained, and raced by students. Sunseeker has competed in all of the American Solar Challenge events, going back to 1990.
Blue Sky Solar Racing is a student-run team at the University of Toronto that designs and constructs solar powered vehicles to race in international competitions.
The University of Texas Solar Vehicles Team (UTSVT) is a student-driven effort to design, build, test, and race solar vehicles for the purpose of reinforcing skills learned in the classroom, raising awareness of solar power, and bringing solar power closer to practicality. To accomplish this task, a multidisciplinary group of students from various disciplines in the Cockrell School of Engineering, and from other schools across the University of Texas, such as the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Natural Sciences come together to design and construct the most efficient vehicle as possible.
SolarMobil Manipal is the official Solar Car student team of Manipal University, Manipal, India. The team, founded in 2011 by a group of engineering students of Manipal Institute of Technology, is the third Indian solar car team and the first Indian team to build a passenger solar car. SolarMobil is a student project aimed at research & development of solar powered electric vehicle.
Stella and its successors Stella Lux, Stella Vie and Stella Era are a series of solar racing family cars, built for the World Solar Challenge in Australia, sofar winning its Cruiser Class all four times it was held – in 2013, 2015, 2017 and in 2019. Stella is considered the world’s first solar-powered family car and was given the 'Best Technology Development' Award at the 8th annual Crunchies in San Francisco in 2015. Being the only competing vehicle with a license plate, the road registration of Stella contributed to the winning score in the races. The vehicles are designed and built by "Solar Team Eindhoven" (STE) — some 26 students of different faculties of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands. The group have set up a non-profit foundation to promote their concepts for practical solar vehicles for adoption on a broader scale.
Sonnenwagen Aachen is a current project by students from RWTH Aachen University and FH Aachen for the development and construction of a solar car, to participate in the World Solar Challenge in Australia. The solar car race with a length of 3022 km from Darwin in Northern Territory to Adelaide in South Australia is known to be the longest solar car race in the world and has celebrated its 30th anniversary in October 2017.
Top Dutch Solar Racing (TDSR) is a student solar racing team from Groningen, the Netherlands. It was founded in February 2017 and participated two times in the challenger class of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC) for the first time in 2019. In 2021 Top Dutch Solar Racing built its second solar car and competed in the Moroccan Solar Challenge. In 2023, Top Dutch Solar Racing participated in the BWSC again with Green Thunder, the third solar car.
University of Nottingham Racing Team (UoNRT) is the University of Nottingham's student-run electric vehicle team. The team comprises two sub teams, namely Formula Student and Solar Challenge. The University of Nottingham also used to compete in the e-bike area, with its Power Electronics Machines and Control Research Group (PEMC) from the Faculty of Engineering. Working on new technologies they were awarded "best" EV at Formula Student UK 2021. The teams are currently developing a "Lighter, more efficient Formula Student car" and a 2-seater Solar Challenge car "designed around upcycled EV systems". The team relies on external sponsors to fund the development, manufacture and testing of the vehicle.
