Updated

This weekend, more than 40 solar cars from around the world will begin a 3-thousand kilometre odyssey down the centre of Australia. The World Solar Challenge is held every two years but this is the first time there's a focus on 'normal', practical cars.

Source: 7.30 NT | Duration: 7min 21sec

Topics: science-and-technology, motor-sports, research-organisations, solar-energy, nt

Transcript

ALYSSA BETTS, PRESENTER: This weekend, more than 40 solar cars from around the world will begin a three-thousand kilometre odyssey down the centre of Australia. The World Solar Challenge is held every two years, but this is the first time there's a focus on 'normal', practical cars. Alison Middleton took a look at some of the teams dreaming of creating the mainstream cars of our future.

ALISON MIDDLETON, REPORTER: They're weird and wonderful creations whizzing through the outback. Over the past two decades, cars powered by the sun have raced from Darwin to Adelaide in the World Solar Challenge.

CHRIS SELWOOD, WORLD SOLAR CHALLENGE DIRECTOR: It's a design competition to track down the world's most efficient electric car. What we see on the road driving down to Adelaide is the proof that the design concept actually works.

ALISON MIDDLETON: This year, there's a new field of contenders built for practicality rather than speed. Eight teams have entered the 'cruiser' class - a category for cars that are a bit more down to earth.

DR DAVID SNOWDON, CRUISER CLASS MANAGER: What it really does is allows the teams to compete based on how practical and how realistic their cars are versus how, how fast they are, just purely on how fast they are.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The cruisers are scored according to the number of passengers they can carry and how suited they are to everyday use. As well as collecting the sun's energy with solar panels, they're allowed to recharge their batteries from the electricity grid. The end goal is to qualify for road registration in the country where they've been built.

DR DAVID SNOWDON, CRUISER CLASS MANAGER: People can see themselves using one of these cars to drive to work and actually sort of imagine themselves in it and people should - this technology is here right now and it doesn't require much imagination now with this cruiser class to be able see yourself picking your kids up from school or going for a game of golf.

ALISON MIDDLETON: A team of German university students has built the 'PowerCore SunCruiser'. With a top speed of 115 kilometres an hour, it has a range of a thousand kilometres and seats three.

MELVIN OTTE, HOCHSCHULE BOCHUM SOLARCAR MANAGER: There's no comfort inside, so it's for special use and not for everybody. I think you have to love this car to drive it.

ALISON MIDDLETON: This team inspired the new cruiser class by pioneering the first solar car aimed at the average driver.

MELVIN OTTE, HOCHSCHULE BOCHUM SOLARCAR MANAGER: The 'Bo Cruiser' from 2009 was the first car with four wheels and you can sit normal inside the car so you don't have to lie in the car - you can sit like in a normal car and yeah, that was very impressive.

ALISON MIDDLETON: Two years on, they designed a car that circumnavigated the world. Now they're back with this new and improved model, but it's still not the most comfortable ride across the desert.

ALISON MIDDLETON: How hot does it get inside?

MELVIN OTTE, HOCHSCHULE BOCHUM SOLARCAR MANAGER: Around about 50 degrees, so it's very hot inside.

ALISON MIDDLETON: While it's a thrill to be in the driver's seat, long road trips are no less tedious.

KRISTINA BORCHARDT, HOCHSCHULE BOCHUM SOLARCAR DRIVER: It's very great feeling of driving this car, to sit behind the wheel, but during the driving this car it's, sometimes it's boring because the road is so long and there's no flora on the road.

ALISON MIDDLETON: And then there's the price tag.

KRISTINA BORCHARDT, HOCHSCHULE BOCHUM SOLARCAR DRIVER: In the future it could be a normal car but now it is very expensive so it has a high price and we use more than 500-thousand euro and so I don't think that anybody else has so much money.

ALISON MIDDLETON: 'eVe' is an Australian-made cruiser that can reach 140 kilometres an hour. She can travel 700 kilometres on a sunny day or 500 k's at night using energy stored in her batteries. The two-seater is modelled on high powered sports cars.

ALEX TO, UNSW SOLAR RACING TEAM - SUNSWIFT: There's no leather plush interiors - it's still very much a racing car and those sorts of luxuries, as we think of them, are still absent. However if you compare it to our previous car it's a whole new world - like you start thinking you have more space, you can move around, you can see more, it's much safer.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The team hopes the car will one day be roadworthy.

ALEX TO, UNSW SOLAR RACING TEAM - SUNSWIFT: Already there are cars for instance which have solar arrays on them which help power the air-conditioning and we're seeing similar features such as, you know the high performance lithium-iron batteries, you know the lightweight sort of designs being incorporated into passenger cars so I'm confident that we will see these sorts of things incorporated and I'm hopeful that one day we'll be driving these sorts of cars in the future.

ALISON MIDDLETON: 'Stella' from the Netherlands is touted as the world's first solar-powered family car. She can go up to 120 kilometres an hour and has a range of 800 k's by day - half that by night. The four seater sedan is has been deemed roadworthy in her country. The Dutch team won't be needing their car heater, but they'll be making use of other mod cons.

WOUTER VAN LOON, SOLAR TEAM EINDHOVEN: If you want to listen to your music you can just plug it in, you can listen to your MP3 player or charge a phone.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The team is developing technology so the car - when parked in the sun - can power homes.

WOUTER VAN LOON, SOLAR TEAM EINDHOVEN: If you've got excess power from the sun you can put it back into the grid so that's what you can do - you can use your iron or something like that just from the solar power.

ALISON MIDDLETON: And they think Stella could one day be made for the masses.

WOUTER VAN LOON, SOLAR TEAM EINDHOVEN: I think that we've proven with Stella that a family car on solar energy is really, you can really use it and I hope that in not too long time there will be a lot of Stellas all over the road.

ALISON MIDDLETON: Solar power is already being used in Australia to charge electric and hybrid cars. But the jury is out on whether cars powered mainly by their own rooftop solar panels will take over our roads.

CHRIS SELWOOD, WORLD SOLAR CHALLENGE DIRECTOR: We will one day be driving electric cars and whether that electricity comes from the solar cells on the roof of the car, solar cells on the roof of the garage, who knows - all options are open.

DR DAVID SNOWDON, CRUISER CLASS MANAGER: Really it's a matter of do you really need to carry your solar panel around with you - you don't carry a solar panel in order to charge your mobile phone, yet it's an electric-powered device that you're perfectly happy plugging in every night - why shouldn't your car be the same?

ALISON MIDDLETON: Either way, the technology put to the test in the World Solar Challenge is helping to develop electric cars for everyday use.

DR DAVID SNOWDON, CRUISER CLASS MANAGER: What the event does is allows you to get a combination and really get a group of people together to develop the set of technologies which together, whether they're carried around on the car or not, really results in a clean transport solution.