JU Solar Team ready for solar car racing in Australia

The JU Solar Team has been in Australia for a month ahead of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge on August 24-31, where the participants cross the continent in solar cars.

"There are some really sharp teams in the competition, but of course we aim for victory," says Matilda Duric Svensson, Team Manager for JU Solar Team 2025.

The students in the solar car team at Jönköping University (JU) started building their solar car about a year and a half ago. On 8 July this year, the solar car was sent to Australia and two weeks later the team followed. They landed in Adelaide, where the 40 solar cars in Bridgestone World Solar Challenge cross the finish line and went to their main sponsor Axelent's subsidiary, located in the same city.

Assembling the roof rack

There they set up the solar car, organized their packing and attached the roof tents to their rental cars. The team sleeps in the bush during the competition. They also installed a roof structure for the trailer on which the solar car is transported, in order to protect it.

The 3,022-kilometer race route runs from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south. The JU Solar Team drove the reverse route north for the competition, which took them four days.

On the first try

Once in Darwin, they passed the technical and administrative check of the solar car before the competition (known as static scrutineering) on the first try. They also passed the inspection to drive the solar car on public roads. What remains is dynamic scrutineering, which takes place the day before the start of the competition.

JU Solar Team's solar car is the only one in the competition that has a droplet shape. It is designed as a water droplet to be as aerodynamic as possible and minimize air resistance.

- It attracts spectators. Many other teams have come up and said they've been dying to see our unique design on the car, which is great to hear," says Matilda Svensson Duric.

"Tough, but far from impossible"

The test runs have been sucessfull and after some adjustments, the solar car feels more stable and sealed than ever before. However, the team would like to make a few more improvements before the race starts on 24 August.

"Everything has gone pretty much as expected. It has been super fun, challenging, tiring, motivating and quite stressful. The different teams are working well together and the food team is making sure that we get good and tasty food, which is incredibly appreciated. We are excited and a bit nervous about the start of the competition. It may be tough to win, but far from impossible, says Matilda Svensson Duric.