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A group of Engineering students from the North-West University’s Potchefstroom Campus made history when their debut solar car showed the rest of the world who’s boss.

This group of eight students was part of the team that competed against twelve other teams, who among others were South-Africa, Japan, India and Whales. Over a period of eleven days, the Sasol Solar Challenge unfolded throughout the country where teams had an epic journey of 5200 km. The competition entailed that all vehicles had to be powered only by sun power and had to maintain an average speed of 60km/h. The starting gun was shot in Pretoria, where they made their way to Cape Town, made their way back alongside the shore to Pietermaritzburg to cross the finish line in Pretoria again.

After a thrilling, but surely excruciating journey, the NWU triumphed and shared the overall first place with the Tokai University from Japan. Currently, the Japanese are on top of the world solar rankings. The NWU also took the first place in their class, and broke two national and one international record – for the longest distance travelled in one day, and the longest distance travelled overall only using sun power. They were also awarded the gold medal for their safety report and won the Africa Spirit award.

The so-called batmobile, like competitors referred to the NWU’s vehicle, is powered by the amount of energy you would find in a radio controlled airplane engine. This, powering the vehicle to reach an unbelievable speed of 110km/h. It only weighs 280kg and can give a few commercial vehicles a run for their money on a pull away – doing zero to 100km/h in only seven seconds.

The vehicle, according to the team leader and lecturer, prof Albert Helberg, is mainly built from carbon fibre and resin, because of the fact that it is much lighter, but seven times stronger than steel. “It has a hefty price tag of R750 000, but makes it one of the cheapest manufactured vehicles in the competition. The Japanese spent more than two million American dollars to manufacture theirs. We are grateful to the Technology Innovation Agency who sponsored us with R330 000.”

Helberg says they only started constructing their vehicle in June this year. The car that definitely resembles to something from a Batman movie has a big flat surface that houses the sun panels. The panels that is slightly thicker than a piece of paper, stores about 1,2kW of energy in a battery, which then drives the two hub engines. “Because of the fact that the vehicle reaches high speeds, we decided to design a four-wheeled vehicle, instead of a three-wheeled car which is very popular in other racing classes. We implemented world class sailplane technology for the aerodynamics of the vehicle and knew that we had a winning recipe.”

Helberg adds that the construction of all the electronic and mechanic parts opened the door for new research. “We had to develop a first-of-its-kind engine and gearbox. It prepares the market for a higher level of technology. I believe that we will see the first commercial solar powered vehicles on our roads as early as 2017.”
The NWU’s project currently forms part of a first-year student’s project that will from next year be rolled out to a post graduate project, with more innovative research. Furthermore, the batmobile will now be used as a pilot project to inspire the development of a better car. This will be used to compete in the World Solar Competition that takes place in Australia next year.