Engineering students from KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit) presented on Wednesday their latest solar car with which they will participate in next October’s World Solar Challenge in Australia.
“BluePoint” is already the 8th Belgian solar car to participate in this competition and is also the most aerodynamic car in our country’s history.
"The peculiarity of this car is the solar panel that we developed completely on our own," driver Inge Hablets explained.
With its surface of 2.6 square meters, it is the same size as its predecessor, Punch 2. The new solar car, however, is much narrower, as is the cockpit in which the young student will travel for the 3,021 kilometres of Bridgestone’s World Solar Challenge, which starts on 13 October.
"The car was literally adjusted to my size to avoid unnecessary waste of space. My hips and my fit shoulders perfectly," she said.
The driving tests will begin in the coming weeks. The team realizes, of course, that the challenges in Australia are of an entirely different order than in Belgium.
They mention extremely windy weather and tough competition: 53 teams from 24 countries. Plus, transporting the car and its ionic batteries to Australia is not obvious, they said.
The Brussels Times
