The Tokai Challenger, a solar powered electric vehicle built by students of the Tokai University in Japan will compete in the South African Solar Challenge 2010 – believed to be the most gruelling event on the international calendar.
The event is part of a campaign to champion the use of clean energy, while at the same time it provides invaluable information to scientists, engineers and students in fields as diverse as automotive technology, business management and mathematics.
The Tokai Challenger arrived from Japan last week with some hype to its name – it beat all other competitors at last year’s Australian Global Green Challenge, where a near-faultless run over more than 3 000 km with an impressive average speed of 100.54 km/h secured it the coveted title.
The South African Solar Challenge 2010 will start on Thursday 23 September at the Innovation HUB in Pretoria before passing through Bloemfontein, Cape Town, George, Grahamstown, Kokstad, Richards Bay and Badplaas. The race will finish back at the Innovation HUB on Saturday 2 October, with competitors having run 4 200 km on solar power alone.
“Events such as the Solar Challenge excites everyone at Toyota. Not only does it celebrate engineering excellence, but it also shows the cutting edge future of clean automotive technology,” says Andrew Kirby, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Toyota South Africa Motors.
“With no radio, air conditioner or windscreen wipers, it is true that our solar powered vehicles are still somewhat removed from modern passenger vehicles. The technology however offers unquestionable environmental benefits and we believe that this gruelling race will offer us an opportunity to further improve our vehicle and our research on solar technology,” ,” says Professor Hideki Kimura of Tokai University’s School of Engineering and team leader of the Tokai Challenger.
