An June 24th, our team started at the university Bochum with our tour. We are all students and drive through Europe in a Land Rover Defender that has been converted into a solar car. At the beginning of 2021 we started planning, bought a car with engine damage and started with the conversion. For over 20 years, at the university Bochum built solar cars. We want to show the potential of this technology. We used to build aerodynamically optimized lightweight racing cars for the “World Solar Challenge” in Australia.
Now we wanted to prove that we can also convert a production vehicle. That is more sustainable because we can continue to use almost all parts of the car. And flying around the world with 20 people isn’t good for the environment either. We replaced the internal combustion engine and the tank with a Tesla electric motor and 16 cell modules. The electricity is generated by solar cells with an area of up to 80 square meters. These generate enough electricity during the day to charge the vehicle’s battery. If the sun is shining, the car will be charged in a day, but it can also take two to three days to be fully charged.
One problem is the current gearbox. We can only drive in one gear and that with 16,000 revolutions. That’s bad for range. A new, specially developed gearbox is currently being installed in Riga. We will then not only be able to drive more than 300 kilometers, but also up to 100 kilometers per hour. The rover has already been to Denmark and Scandinavia. With a new gearbox we’re going to Warsaw first, then we want to go south, Turkey and Greece are also on our agenda. We don’t know yet whether we’ll really make it all the way. What is certain, however, is that we will be on the road for 100 days.