By Donald, Kin Ho Wong
When a group of young professionals joined a not-for-profit solar car racing team, TeamArrow, their wish was to achieve electrification of the automotive industry in the coming years.
President of TeamArrow Andrew Carr said getting more electric vehicles on the road and building up the technique in Australia and around the world is crucial.
“(We are) pushing the limits of that technology and giving a platform for new technology to be applied to,” Mr Carr said.
He said the team pride themselves on their openness and collaborative mindset.
As an innovative hobbyist sports club, TeamArrow is facing challenges, including attracting funding, sponsorship, and supporters.
“Some international teams, for example, they have the funding to be able to pay some of their members, so I feel like that’s a big differentiator,” Mr Carr said.
TeamArrow believes they could afford the latest and better technology if they could get adequate funding.
They compared this to the champion team of the 2023 Solar Challenge, who used cutting-edge battery technology from Amprius, a US-based technological company.
“They’ve incorporated silicon into that chemistry to be able to increase the density of that battery cell by about 30 per cent,” Mr Carr said.
“They rolled it out for the race and got to really put it through its paces on the global stage which made a big difference.”
Complying with the regulations for the race is another bump in the road.
For instance, it is difficult to get solar integration because of the limited surface area on a car, which is hard to make it efficient and practical at the same time.
“Keeping the mass of the car extremely low is an insane challenge, and in current technology it’s not particularly feasible,” Mr Carr said.
That is why their cars are very specialized and do not look like a normal road vehicle.
He said the team has learned to do a lot with a little and work within their restrictions, focusing on the development of three main types of technology: solar panels, software, and electrical infrastructure.
“You can have a major step forward in any of those three domains, and that doesn’t necessarily translate into a solar car, but you can have much better solar technology, much better electric technology, and much better software technology from those individual aspects that massively benefit just electric cars in general,” Mr Carr said.
He said the Solar Challenge is essentially Formula One but for renewables, and both are trickling their way into automotive industry by applying their technologies to general vehicles.
“Some people look at the cars and say this doesn’t look like a car but neither does a Formula One car on the road.”
These challenges are what TeamArrow will solve with their upcoming second-generation car, which will be fully compliant with the Australian Design Rules (ADR) and become mass manufacturable, by taking what they learned from their first-generation car, Arrow One.
Mr Carr knows the team has potential and hopes they will soon win a challenge.
“The Belgians have won the past couple of races, and I think it’s time that Australia finally puts their own team on top for the World Solar Challenge,” he said.
TeamArrow is currently looking for in-kind sponsors and cash sponsors for their operations and developing the second-generation car to prepare for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2025.
