It is feasible to be quick and sustainable, as several University of New South Wales (UNSW) students from Sydney, Australia, have demonstrated.
The team’s Sunswift 7 electric vehicle (EV) set a world record for being the fastest EV to travel over 1000 kilometers on a single charge.
Sunswift Team Manager and UNSW Sydney mechanical engineering student Andrea Holden noted in a UNSW news release that it is extremely strange to think that we contributed to creating the best thing on the entire planet.
The team had to cover 1,000 kilometers (about 621 miles) in less than 12 hours in order to set the world record. With eight minutes to spare, the Australian Automotive Research Centre (AARC) in Wensleydale, Victoria, completed the task in 11 hours and 52.08 minutes. The car covered a distance greater than a drive between Sydney and Melbourne at an average speed of nearly 85 kilometers per hour (or around 53 miles per hour) during the journey.
A few days after the team’s achievement was verified by professionals, they were presented with the official Guinness World Records certificate.
Holden stated in the news statement that when work on this car first began two years ago, everything was on lockdown and there were many challenging times.
But seeing the entire team work together, make such great strides, and bring us to this incredible position has been extremely fulfilling. Even though it required a lot of effort, long hours, and stress, it was all worthwhile. This world record is proof of the hard work the entire crew has put in.
According to its website, Sunswift Racing has been producing solar-powered electric cars in Sydney since 1996 with the Sunswift 7 being the most recent in this range. According to designboom, the new automobile weighs 500 kilos (1,102 pounds), which is around 25% less than a Tesla. By eliminating equipment like airbags and air conditioning that are often found in passenger vehicles, the team was able to reduce the weight. However, the vehicle’s design also contributed to the speed.
Read More: Manchin and Biden Argue Over Coal.!
According to a news statement from the team, Richard Hopkins, team principal and UNSW professor of practice, they have concentrated on maximizing efficiency in an effort to beat this world record. They have demonstrated what is eventually possible if you focus on aerodynamics, rolling resistance, and the use of intelligent materials.
This EV is not the only one created by students that will set speed records in 2022. On September 23, 2022, a team from the University of Stuttgart in Germany set a Guinness World Record for creating an electric vehicle (EV) that could accelerate from zero to 100 kilometers per hour (about 62 miles per hour) in 1.461 seconds.
Read More: IRENA Report: The World Is Falling Short of Its Energy Transition Goals.!
These kinds of fast EVs won’t be sold in the same market as regular cars, but the advancements they represent could still have an effect outside of racing. Hopkins claimed that during the record run, the Sunswift 7 consumed just 3.8 kilowatt hours of energy for 100 kilometers, which is nearly a fourth of the energy used by the most energy-efficient EVs now available.
We have demonstrated that it is feasible to make cars more effective, sustainable, and ecologically friendly, he claimed. Nobody believes we’ll be driving F1 cars on the road in five or ten years, according to someone who used to work in Formula One. But because F1 technology pushes the envelope so much, some of it eventually trickles down [to conventional vehicles], which is what we’re aiming for with Sunswift and what this world record demonstrates is possible.
