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World’s First Solar Car that travels 1,000km on a Single Charge – SunSwift 7 gets Guinness World Record

Engineering Students from Australia designed a Solar race-car that runs 1,000m on a single charge and gets a Guinness World Record for the feat.

After electric vehicles getting a huge upswing of sales in the last decade, solar cars are hitting a shot now with number of companies inline in the process of making one. Just like Lightyear 0, the solar-car that can run up to 6 months at free-cost, while charging from the solar, here is another Solar car with another coup of achievement – 1,000 km range on a single charge.

A team of engineering students of University of New South Wales (UNSW) has created a new car named ‘SunSwift 7’ running on solar power, that goes globally appreciable after the Guinness World Record for its range capability.

SunSwift 7 Solar Car

The fastest solar-powered race car – Sunswift 7 is famed for reaching 1,000 km on a single charge in under 12 hours. The solar car powered by a battery and solar panels running all through its roof and hood, likely as the Lightyear 0 went to an average of 85km / hr during the test.

Carved entirely by 50 engineering undergraduate students of UNSW, weighs just 500kg, about a quarter of that of a Tesla. The team had ripped off features like airbags, air conditioning systems to make this possible. Sunswift 7’s aerodynamic design, efficiency of motors and impressive low rolling resistance enables the car to feature excellent efficiency.

On the Australian Automotive Research Centre (AARC) in Wensleydale, Victoria, the team had the test circuit, wherein the car achieved a verified time of 11 hours 52.08 minutes for the record distance. And the record of ‘Fastest EV over 1,000 km on a single charge’ follows by this.


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Guinness Record

During the record attempt, Sunswift 7 has completed 240 laps of AARC’s highway circuit, nearly 900kms with only stops for a change of driver and one tire change and the nerve-wracking battery-repair.

“During this record, the energy consumption was just 3.8kWh/100km, whereas even the most efficient EVs on the road today only achieve a rating of 15kWh / 100km and the average is around 20kWh/100km,” Prof. Hopkins mentioned.

Gaining a Guinness record was not without a drama, as the team faced a near-failing experience when the car’s battery management issue put the car in halt. The team fixed the battery-problem within 14 minutes and 52 seconds and set the car back on track – as the rules of the Guinness event required Sunswift 7 not to be stationary for more than 15 minutes.

UNSW Sunswift-7 Team of Engineers

They received the official honor for “Fastest EV of Reaching 1,000km on a Single Charge” and the Guinness World Record Certificate of the same, a few days later.

What you think of this solar-car & future of this?

(For more such interesting technology and innovative detailing, keep reading The Inner Detail).

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