MAR 04

For the tenth year in a row, MIT students have designed a solar race car to compete in the World Solar Challenge, a seven-day, 2,000-mile race across Australia. This year's model is called Eleanor and she crushes the stereotype that solar cars can only go slow.

The $243,000, carbon-fiber machine weighs only 500 pounds and can go as fast as 90 mph. The top is covered with 580 silicon solar cells that generate 1,200 watts. The power is stored in a battery pack comprised of 693 lithion-ion cells and the car is propelled by a 10-horsepower motor. The team used Ford Motor Company's wind tunnel to fine tune the body design to the point of reaching a drag coefficient of .11, which makes it more aerodynamic than the Toyota Prius or Aptera 2e.

Solar cars usually get a lot of flack for not being a realistic option for commercial automobiles and I agree that a fully solar-powered car is not viable right now. Eleanor's team admits that even though she could go 90 mph, the driver will probably stick to around 55 mph because of the loud resonance that happens due to the hollow body. But just because it's not ideal, doesn't mean designers shouldn't keep experimenting with the technology. The MIT team believes that the breakthroughs they've made this year in their solar race car could easily be adapted to hybrid and electric cars to boost their efficiency.

via Wired's Autopia

Comments (9)

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Car body styles and energy
written by D, March 05, 2009

I guess if you want the speed you have to have that type of body style. I hope that when all of our sources of transportation go electric that they get away from the ugly egg shaped body styles or no one will want to buy them. I hope the chevy or ford pick ups can still have all that power but with out using gas oil and all the toxic crap with out people losing their jobs or businesses. Clean world clean air healthy people.

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a cool stuff
written by kristaufan, March 05, 2009

It's such a cool stuff that could make the world more attractive.

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Hey babes... Wanna check my ride?
written by hyperspaced, March 05, 2009

Great for attracting women with unshaven legs (and other parts of the body)

How does this thing park anyway?

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written by Carl, March 05, 2009

I saw Standford's prior year entry on display. These "cars" are pretty much like a 3 wheel bicycle (tricycle) with a frame and cover to hold the panel and shield the wind. It's a tricky engineering problem to balance all the features-- weight, battery size, solar cell type. The size of the cell area is limited, then you want the cross sectional area to be as small as possible. At 90mph this would act like a big sail, so I would guess future machines that could achieve this speed would need flaps and maybe electronic controls for it.

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Crosswind Performance?
written by jstdadd, March 05, 2009

I hope it isn't windy in the Australian Outback!

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Egg shapes are a needed feature!
written by Don, March 05, 2009

>>I hope that when all of our sources of transportation go electric that they get away from the ugly egg shaped body styles or no one will want to buy them.

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Nice Top Speed
written by Roger, March 09, 2009

That's an impressive top speed, for sure. Still, if we accepted lower speeds there would be less fatalities and lighter designs would be acceptable re safety.

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written by ...., March 24, 2009

Doesn't matter, the Dutch will win again anyway :D

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written by alida, April 15, 2009

Best of luck. Having just read a lot about the challenges around solar vehicles, I felt sort of sorry for you after that uninformed comment about the shape of the car and forgave you your language.

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