Encouraged by the success of its latest entry for the Sasol Solar Challenge, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has elevated its ambitions by announcing its entry into the 2015 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia.
2012 marked the first year the university entered a car in the Sasol Solar Challenge, South Africa’s premier event for racing solar powered cars, attracting entrants from institutions across SA and abroad. After finishing the distance based race as the top South African team of its class with its 2012 car (named Apalis), UKZN began designing a new car, Hulamin-iKlwa, with the support of Hulamin as title sponsor. The university again finished as the top South African team in the 2014 Sasol Solar Challenge.
The new car, dubbed Hulamin, will become Africa’s first entrant in the 28-year history of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The race covers some 3000 km from Darwin to Adelaide. Cars must race to the finish line, powered only by the sun, and the first car to pass the posts in Adelaide, wins the race.
As with any electric vehicle, one of the most important parts of the team’s solar car is the battery pack, and it sources some of the highest capacity 18650 lithium ion cells to construct the 20 kg battery pack. The regulations of the race limit only the weight of the battery pack, therefore it is vital for the designers to source cells with the highest possible specific energy.
Just Batteries first assisted the team in 2014 by assembling the cells into larger packs which it could use to build up its custom designed battery. The UKZN team attributes the performance of the pack over the full 2400 km race distance in part to the exceptional assembly quality provided by Just Batteries. Consequently, it was an easy decision for the team to once again choose the company to supply the battery packs for its new car, Hulamin.
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