Photo: UNSW Sydney
An Australian-made solar-powered race car has narrowly set a provisional Guinness World Record in a 1,000 kilometer race (about 621 mile), claiming the title with just six minutes to spare. The Sunswift 7 vehicle, created by a team of University of New South Wales (UNSW) engineering students, is now on track to hold the record for the fastest electric car to travel more than 1,000 kilometers on a single charge. The vehicle, powered by a battery and solar panels on its roof and hood, completed 240 laps of Victoria’s Australian Automotive Research Centre to complete the challenge. “This is a bunch of very smart amateurs who have taken all of the ingredients and put it together in a brilliant way,” said Professor Hopkins who led the team in the development of the vehicle. While the Sunswift 7 will not be a production car of the future due to cost and other practicalities, its design could provide valuable lessons to the design of future fuel-efficient vehicles.
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