Fueled on sunshine to 2nd place

The Sasol Solar Challenge travels from Johannesburg to Cape Town, with the ultimate winner being the team that has managed to clock the most kilometers on their solar car. Seven teams from all over the world crossed the finish line on September 16 after successfully driving over 16,130 kilometers collectively on public roads on solar power alone.

“We are very proud that our BluePoint Atlas traveled through the whole of South Africa and that we as a team mastered all inconveniences collectively without ever being put on a trailer,” said Yari Van Hecke from the students’ team. “The competition was great, and representing Leuven like this was a privilege.”

The teams from Delft and Leuven were engaged in an exciting neck-and-neck race all week. “We were 10 kilometers behind the Dutch team on the last day when we found out that one of the battery cells showed a lower voltage. As safety has always been our top priority, we slowed down to remove it, which lost us some time,” says spokesperson Emma Stalmansen of the Agoria Solar Car Team.

But as a team, they are still incredibly proud of the performance they managed to achieve despite all setbacks. Yari van Hecke: “That is the beauty of engineering: trial and error – we have learned so much and are now even more determined to optimize our design for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2023”.