Nuna

To have a good chance to win, the car has to: The solar cells are made of gallium arsenide (GaAs) and consist of three layers.

Apart from efficiency, size also matters, so the entire upper surface of the Nuna 3 is covered with them, except for the cockpit.

The ideal shape is achieved in various stages: From meteorological data at the area where the contest is to take place, it can be concluded that there will likely be a strong side-wind.

The improvements are due to completely redeveloped digital power electronics and control, realized 1999.

The design was initially made to reach its maximum performance at the normal cruising speed of the solar car at around 100 km/h.

Winning the race requires not just a good vehicle but also a clever way of driving it, in accordance with the characteristics of the track.

Each version of the Nuna has been built by a team consisting of students of the Delft University of Technology.

The team consisted mainly of students from the Delft University of Technology who were guided by former astronaut Wubbo Ockels.

Nuna 3 was one of the favourites for the 2005 edition of the World Solar Challenge with a pre-race test-drive speed of 130 km/h.

The final result was that the 3021 kilometers between Darwin and Adelaide were covered in a record 29 hours and 11 minutes, averaging about 103 km/h.

The main change to the Nuna 7 from its predecessors is that it has four wheels instead of three, as required by the new rules of the World solar challenge.

[3] A modified version of the car, Nuna 8S, won the 2016 Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa.

[4] A modified version of the car, Nuna 9S, won the 2018 Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa.

This was the first time since the team started participating in the World Solar Challenge that they failed to secure a place on the podium.

A modified version of the car, Nuna Phoenix, set a world record for the most amount of kilometers driven using just the power of the sun: 924 km after their race got cancelled due to COVID-19.

A modified version of the car, Nuna 11s, won the 2022 Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa.