On Saturday July 1 we unveiled our 2017 car, Sundae.
It is the smallest car this team has ever built in accordance with the new rules for the 2017 World Solar Challenge, which only allow for four square meters of silicon solar cells, and has an aggressive aerobody with more optimization than we have applied in the past. Although the solar area decreased and the car shrunk by about 2/3, the majority of mechanical components did not change size — making this year’s race the most challenging to design for mechanically in World Solar Challenge history.
Sundae is built to enter the Challenger class of the World Solar Challenge, which involves transporting a single person across the Outback as quickly as possible with just 5kWh of batteries. We will normalize the solar array in the mornings and evenings before and after driving, rotating just the topshell of the car towards the sun. In recent cycles, we have normalized the entire car.
We are very excited about where this car will take us and hope you are, too! Thank you to our major supporters, Ford Motor Company and Stanford University, and to all of the other sponsors, alumni, and advisors who have helped us make Sundae a reality.
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