Racing on sunlight and imagination.

The short version:

The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia has started.

This is one of the most prestigious solar car races in the world. The first one was held in 1987.

The teams, comprising of secondary and tertiary students from countries including Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan, and the United States, travel as far as they can each day until 5 pm.

Each team must be fully self-sufficient, and even camp overnight in the Australian desert.

The race is expected to take a week for most cars, which will travel at speeds of 90-100km/h powered only by the sun.

Just like Sci-Fi often leads to advancements in the real world, races like this will often lead to advancements and features in the electric vehicle industry. One topic that pops up often is the idea of putting solar panels on Teslas or other electric vehicles. Contests like the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge helps companies develop better tech to make integrated solar panels a reality for daily drivers. If you’ve clicked around this site at all you know that I’m a huge fan of the idea solar on cars. Most of us don’t drive more than 40 miles a day and were getting closer to that type of range. It’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to picture a day when you won’t need to plug in your EV for weeks at a time.

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