Solaride
How many times has your team participated in the event?
This Solaride’s debut at the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. Our team hoped to participate in 2021, but the event was canceled due to the pandemic. Instead, the European teams organized their own event - Solar Challange Morocco 2021, where Solaride was the sole cruiser class representative.
What is the design philosophy behind your solar car?
Our three priorities are safety, reliability, and efficiency. Our top priority is ensuring the safety of our drivers at all times. Secondly, we focused on making sure that all the systems in our vehicle were designed to withstand the demanding nature of the race as well as the infamous outback. Thirdly, the use of energy is of utmost importance in the BWSC; that is why being as efficient as possible, and trying to minimize energy losses in every part of our solar car is also on our shortlist of high priorities.
What is unique about your solar car?
Compared to our first generation car, we have taken a more "sporty" approach, making Solaride II more reliable and efficient. Some of the features include:
- The body of our vehicle is made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic and the tube frame from Advanced High Strength Steel.
- To optimize energy efficiency, we’ve developed an optimal speed controller, which will help us curb any unnecessary energy loss.
- Solaride II features a battery pack designed and built from scratch by our own engineering team; a significant upgrade from Solaride I, which used recycled Tesla battery modules.
Why does your team value participating in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge?
Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is the most prestigious solar race in the world. It is the best opportunity to put our car on the line with other solar teams and see what we are doing right and where our team needs to better ourselves.
What is the one thing your team is looking forward to when you visit Australia?
Since we were the only cruiser-class solar car at the Morocco event, we are looking forward to meeting all of the other cruiser solar teams and learning more about the design of their solar cars.
