Working in shift, working on the weekends: it’s all work and no play for the 22 students at Solar Team Eindhoven (STE) right now. As the presentation of TU/e’s latest solar car nears, every day, every hour and every minute are precious, says accountmanager Liselotte Kockelkoren. The team is “on schedule”, she says. The cars body is done, so the team is now working hard to get all other parts, from suspension to electronics, together.  

In the meantime, STE is watching the other teams that will be competing in the Cruiser category in Australia closely. As far as Kockelkoren is concerned, Australia and Germany are STE’s main competitors. “Several teams have already revealed their designs. No, they didn’t intimidate us. We still stand a good chance”, she says.  

One thing is for ure: the solar teams are facing “a very exciting challenge”, says Kockelkoren. For one thing, speed wil be more important this year in the Cruiser category. “It’s tough to reach racing speeds with a family car, but we really believe in the family concept, so we’ve thought of all kinds of ways to speed up the car even with four people inside.” The TU/e students will leave for Australia by the end of August, where they’ll be testing their car for another month-and-a-half.

STE’s new solar car will be presented to the audience in the MetaForum market hall on July 2 from 4 p.m.