Cape Town - Technology to build and race solar powered cars in South Africa is increasing in its competitiveness to take on world champions.

That's the word from the results of the Sasol Solar Challenge that concluded in Cape Town on Saturday.

"Every single team on this race has done really well. Okay, two struggled a little bit, but the top teams are now very close to where the world champions are," race director Winstone Jordaan, told Fin24.

The Dutch team dominated the race, but local universities illustrated that they have the wherewithal to compete in the high tech event where a top-flight vehicle can cost upward of €1.5m.

The University of Johannesburg, University of Cape Town and North West University demonstrated that they have the technological prowess to build and race solar vehicles that can potentially compete with the best in the world.

Local quality

"They are really able to challenge them and keep them on their toes. Even on day one, the world champions knew that one mistake and there were teams right behind them, ready to take their place," said Jordaan.

The competition is a practical demonstration project that aims to illustrate and push the limits of solar power as a future means of transportation technology.







Local racers are not yet at the level of the international competitors, but they have lots of potential. (Duncan Alfreds, Fin24)



The race finished at the UCT campus on Saturday and despite being competitors, a number of teams demonstrated camaraderie at the evening finish.

Jordaan said that while the number of local teams stayed the same, the quality of the entrants has improved.

"We stood still this year: What happened was that UCT joined us, but Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University decided not to build a car this year, so we're still ended up with six teams as we had before."

He added that the competition showed that South Africans have the potential to give world leaders a run for their money despite coming late to the party with solar technology.

"We do compare very favourably with them, but there's a very special technique in building solar cars and we've only been doing that for about fours years now, whereas if you look at the Dutch, they've been doing it for about 16 years."



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