Can an electric vehicle ever be sexy? Richard Hopkins likes to think so.
The former Red Bull Formula One operations manager, now a Professor of Practice at UNSW, wants to explore the possibilities for fast electric vehicles — the kinds you take for a spin on a Saturday just for the sake of it.
"We want to be able to prove that electric vehicles can be fun, not just efficient, not just good for the environment," Professor Hopkins said.
As team principal of the University of NSW's Sunswift Racing – an engineering faculty project consisting of 80 students who design, build and race solar electric vehicles — he believes his students are on the path to achieving it.
Today, at the Australian Automotive Research Centre in Victoria's west, a student-built million-dollar solar EV will attempt to set the Guinness World Record for the fastest solar electric vehicle over 1,000 kilometres.
Five drivers, all UNSW students from the Sunswift project, are aiming to complete 239 laps of the track, which is 200 kilometres per driver, in about 10 hours.
Professor Hopkins said a few of the drivers may still be on their P plates, "but this is motorsport, you can drive racing cars without even having to have a driver's licence".
Why a solar electric vehicle?
A hybrid of sorts, the Sunswift 7 car contains a standard electric car battery, but can also be powered by energy from the sun.
"We can divert that energy straight into the electric motors, so at any one time we can have the car being powered by energy from the battery and also energy from the sun whilst the car is moving," Professor Hopkins said.
"Whilst the car is stationary, we can actually be charging the battery that's onboard the car by power from the sun."
The car battery can also be charged the traditional way by plugging it into a charging station, he said.
By combining an electric battery with solar power, Professor Hopkins said the UNSW Sunswift team wanted to show Australians what was possible.
"We believe that electric vehicles are just these things with batteries in and that's largely true, but there are other ways of producing electricity — solar being one, and probably hydrogen fuel cells being the other," Mr Hopkins said.
The advantages of a solar hybrid, according to Mr Hopkins, is that in the future it could provide other options aside from the traditional lithium iron energy battery.
While the production of commercial solar electric cars is in its infancy — only one company has so far commercialised this technology — Professor Hopkins believed that could change.
"It's way off from being the sole solution. We just don't have cells efficient enough to power cars or trucks solely by photovoltaic [energy], but certainly they can be part of the solution," he said.
A new record
Sunswift team manager, Andrea Holden, said the record-breaking attempt was also an opportunity to draw attention to electric vehicles in general and dispel some myths.
A fourth-year engineering student, Ms Holden said range anxiety and a perception that EVs were slow was common.
"I think by blowing that range anxiety figure out of the water at 1,000 kilometres, it puts people's mind at ease," Ms Holden said.
While Ms Holden admitted their expensive and super-light prototype was not a consumer car, she said creating the record could also put a little pressure on those making consumer cars to strive for more speed, range, and efficiency.
There is no current record holder for the title of "'Fastest 1,000km achieved by a solar electric vehicle on a single charge (prototype)", a Guinness World Records Ltd spokeswoman said.
To set the record, Guinness World Records has given the UNSW students a time limit of 12 hours.
Over two days in 2017, a non-solar electric vehicle created by IT Asset Partners claimed the record for greatest distance covered on a single charge by travelling 1,608.54 kilometres, the spokeswoman said.
Is there a market for solar EVs?
Currently electric vehicles make up less than five per cent of new car sales in Australia.
Hussein Dia, Professor of Urban Mobility at Swinburne University, said consumers were interested in EVs "but for the majority of Australians, the sticking point remains cost".
Supply issues are another obstacle for consumers in Australia.
He said Australia needed to see supply of low-cost EVs in the $40,000 range, as well as cars with singe charge distances in the 800km range, which are now available overseas.
While he said solar EV passenger cars were a long way off, he welcomed the technology.
"It would be good to see if solar catches up, that would be a very interesting space to watch, because it could actually reduce our reliance on mining other minerals which could have some environmental side effects."
On Saturday evening, the UNSW Sunswift team achieved the record in the nick of time.
"We had to beat 12 hours and did it in 11:53.32. What an amazing achievement by everyone involved," a UNSW spokesperson said.
