UNSW students smash electric car world speed record

Students from UNSW’s Sunswift team have smashed the electric car world record for speed over 500km. The team achieved an average speed of more than 100km/h, beating the previous world record of 73km/h.

sunswift ev 1
Credit: UNSW Newsroom

The record was achieved on a 4.2 kilometre circular track at the Australian Automotive Research Centre, located about 50 kilometres outside Geelong, Victoria, where a quarter of the NSW based team made the trip to witness the record breaking moment.

The car relies on a 60kg battery charged by solar panels on the roof, which were switched off during the world-record attempt.

The new record will no doubt give a boost to Sunswift’s long-term goal of getting their car on Australian roads.

“Five hundred kilometres is pretty much as far as a normal person would want to drive in a single day,” said jubilant project director and third-year engineering student Hayden Smith… “It’s another demonstration that one day you could be driving our car.”

“This record was about establishing a whole new level of single-charge travel for high-speed electric vehicles, which we hope will revolutionise the electric car industry,” Smith said.

 

 

 

Comments

5 responses to “UNSW students smash electric car world speed record”

  1. wideEyedPupil Avatar
    wideEyedPupil

    Smart students and lecturers! More power to them ;-). Makes me realise this country hasn’t had it brain completely drained just yet!

  2. Genevo Avatar

    Kudos to the Sunswift team! @wideEyedPupil:disqus, agree, lets just hope those guys stay on here and startup the AU equivalent of the Tesla! But as with Tesla it will take some government support.

  3. BHARATHWAJ Avatar
    BHARATHWAJ

    The latest solar revolution shows that corporates were taking the logistic division in a different direction by the conspiracy of Oil Lobby and Nuclear energy lobby. LET THE PEOPLE GET MORE AWARENESS ABOUT THE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES

  4. john Avatar
    john

    I note possibly a correction needed in the article as
    “in car relies on a 60kg battery”.
    Perhaps this should read–>
    in a car relies on a 60 Kw battery”.

    1. Jo Avatar
      Jo

      Batteries are not measured in kW (not Kw) but in kWh.
      I suppose 60 kg battery is correct because 60 kWh would be a monster of a battery for lightweight a solar car.

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