Solar car makes beeline for Bluff

Engineering students from the University of Waikato and Bochum University of Applied Science in Germany arrive in Kaikoura today in their solar powered cars.

The teams left Auckland Museum on November 24 and arrived in Wellington three days earlier than planned, due to good weather and trouble-free motoring.

The Waikato battery electric vehicle - known as BEV - is a single seat commuter car powered by a bank of 10 lithium-ion batteries. It has a range of 150km travelling at about 80km/h and needs between two and four hours recharging between trips.

“We’ve travelled roughly 800kms so far, at an average speed of 80kmph, which has been good as we haven’t held up any traffic,” says Waikato University team leader Tim Mason.

The car took three years to build with different groups of University of Waikato engineering students working on it for their fourth year project.

For the German team the New Zealand trip is just one leg of an attempt to set a record for the fastest solar car trip around the world.

The teams have generated an astounding amount of public interest, of which the students are enjoying and encouraging.

“Everyone looks at us as we drive past, and when we stop there are a lot of people who are generally interested and come over to have a look at the car. Everyone is just generally really interested in the car and what we are doing – it’s been great,” says Mason.

“Generally the whole trip so far has been amazing and we’re all looking forward to the South Island leg. We plan to slow our pace down in the South Island and take our time, making lots of stops along the way to get photos of the car in some cool places.”

The teams continue their journey down the east coast of the South Island this week.