Our Antenna Business Unit was delighted to say yes to a request from a student engineering team from Jönköping University in Sweden, developing and racing a solar-powered car for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.

The Jönköping University Solar Team (JUST) approached our designers to supply two antennas for their racing car, built specifically for the event. The challenge involved driving 3,000km across Australia, from Darwin to Adelaide, in an energy efficient electric vehicle designed and built by engineering teams from global universities and colleges.

The School of Engineering at Jönköping University has entered 5 solar cars into the competition since 2013. This year, the team approached us to provide two custom antennas to be placed on either end of the car for telemetry and radio communication with the support vehicles.

It was essential that the antennas didn’t interfere with the aerodynamic design of the car, and would continue to operate in the challenging environment of the Australian outback. August is a warm month in the north of the country, mild in the centre but with quite cold nights, and mild in the south, with regular rainfall. So our reputation of providing antennas for harsh environments was a leading factor in the decision of the JU solar team to approach us!

Our designers rose to the challenge in designing and manufacturing suitable antennas for the application. They were able to turn the project round in a short time frame to meet the hectic testing schedule of the solar car and provided robust, lightweight products for mounting on the vehicle. We were proud to be able to add our logo to the car alongside the team’s principal sponsors including Axelent, Volvo, Saab, ST and AstaZero.

The car, named Nova Lumina, arrived in Australia on 24th July, giving the team a month to acclimatise and test before the start of the race on 24th August. The car had to pass several scruniteering tests, both static and in motion, before being allowed to compete. After successfully passing all these stages, the car raced from 8am to 5pm, including some control stops to charge and switch drivers, finishing on 27th August. Averaging 78.6 kph, the team finished in a commendable 8th place in a field of 40 teams.

Read more about the JUST team on their website, and contact our team to find out more about our custom antenna design skills.