page_title: World Solar Challenge
hierarchical_section_title: World Solar Challenge
caption_attribution_description: English: 3,000km Route of Global Green Challenge. 日本語: オーストラリアのグローバル・グリーン・チャレンジ3,000kmのルート
context_page_description: The World Solar Challenge, or the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge since 2013, tied to the sponsorship of Bridgestone Corporation is the world's most well-known solar-powered car event. A biennial road challenge covering 3,022 km through the Australian Outback, from Darwin, Northern Territory, to Adelaide, South Australia, created to foster the development of experimental, solar-powered vehicles.
  The World Solar Challenge attracts teams from around the world, most of which are fielded by universities or corporations, although some are fielded by high schools. It has a 32-year history spanning fifteen events, with the inaugural event taking place in 1987. Initially held once every three years, the event became biennial from the turn of the century.
  Since 2001 the World Solar Challenge was won seven times out of ten efforts by the Nuna team and cars of the Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands. The Tokai Challenger, built by the Tokai University of Japan, was able to take the crown in 2009 and 2011. In the most recent edition, the Belgian Agoria Solar Team from KU Leuven took home the gold.
  Starting in 2007, the WSC has multiple classes.
context_section_description: The World Solar Challenge (WSC), or the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge since 2013, tied to the sponsorship of Bridgestone Corporation is the world's most well-known solar-powered car event. A biennial road challenge covering 3,022 km (1,878 mi) through the Australian Outback, from Darwin, Northern Territory, to Adelaide, South Australia, created to foster the development of experimental, solar-powered vehicles.
  The World Solar Challenge attracts teams from around the world, most of which are fielded by universities or corporations, although some are fielded by high schools. It has a 32-year history spanning fifteen events, with the inaugural event taking place in 1987. Initially held once every three years, the event became biennial from the turn of the century.
  Since 2001 the World Solar Challenge was won seven times out of ten efforts by the Nuna team and cars of the Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands. The Tokai Challenger, built by the Tokai University of Japan, was able to take the crown in 2009 and 2011. In the most recent edition (2019), the Belgian Agoria Solar Team from KU Leuven took home the gold.
  Starting in 2007, the WSC has multiple classes. After the German team of Bochum University of Applied Sciences competed with a four-wheeled, multi-seat car, the BoCruiser (in 2009), in 2013 a radically new "Cruiser Class" was introduced, stimulating the technological development of practically usable, and ideally road-legal, multi-seater solar vehicles. Since its inception, Solar Team Eindhoven's four- and five-seat Stella solar cars from Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) won the Cruiser Class in all four events so far.
  Remarkable technological progress has been achieved since the GM led, highly experimental, single-seat Sunraycer prototype first won the WSC with an average speed of 66.9 km/h (41.6 mph). Once competing cars became steadily more capable to match or exceed legal maximum speeds on the Australian highway, the challenge rules were consistently made more demanding and challenging — for instance after Honda's Dream car first won with an average speed exceeding 55 mph (88.5 km/h) in 1996. In 2005 the Dutch Nuna team were the first to beat an average speed of 100 km/h (62 mph).
  The 2017 Cruiser class winner, the five-seat Stella Vie vehicle, was able to carry an average of 3.4 occupants at an average speed of 69 km/h (43 mph). Like its two predecessors, the 2017 Stella Vie vehicle was successfully road registered by the Dutch team, further emphasizing the great progress in real world compliance and practicality that has been achieved.
  The World Solar Challenge held its 30th anniversary event on October 8–15, 2017.
caption: 3,000km route of World Solar Challenge.
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