Team Sonnenwagen Presents Efficient Solar Car ‘Adelie’ with Covestro’s Support Ahead of Australian Solar Challenge

Team Sonnenwagen Presents Efficient Solar Car ‘Adelie’ with Covestro’s Support Ahead of Australian Solar Challenge

(IN BRIEF) Team Sonnenwagen, a group of students from RWTH Aachen University and Aachen University of Applied Sciences, has developed a highly efficient solar car named “Adelie” to participate in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a challenging solar race across the Australian outback. Before the race, the team visited Covestro’s headquarters in Germany, where Covestro hosted a farewell event. Covestro has been a main sponsor and supporter of the team for about five years, providing innovative materials and expertise. The new solar car, Covestro Adelie, showcases the potential of high-performance plastics for sustainable mobility. The team’s effort led to significant weight reduction and optimization in various aspects of the vehicle. Covestro materials were used for components like the battery cover and seat shell. The team’s sustainable approach extends to their outfit, which features textiles developed in collaboration with Covestro’s partner Huafeng. Covestro wishes the team success in the upcoming solar challenge, where they will compete against 42 teams from 23 countries.

(PRESS RELEASE) LEVERKUSEN, 10-Aug-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — With a highly efficient, self-developed solar car, Team Sonnenwagen wants to take part in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge from October 22 to 29, 2023, the toughest solar race in the world, across the Australian outback. But before that, the team of students from RWTH Aachen University and Aachen University of Applied Sciences made a stop at Covestro’s headquarters in Leverkusen, Germany. In the Campus building there, the company hosted a farewell party for the students, who presented their new solar car “Adelie” and took it for several laps in public for the first time – without any fuel or charging station. Covestro shares the students’ enthusiasm for more sustainable mobility and has supported the team with innovative material solutions, professional exchange and as a main sponsor for about five years.

“I am amazed by the increased efficiency and energy savings you achieve with each new car model,” said Chief Technology Officer Dr. Thorsten Dreier in welcoming the guests. “The Covestro Adelie shows on a small scale what high-performance plastics can do for a sustainable future on a large scale. We are convinced that they are the key to sustainable mobility. That’s why we are consistently driving forward material innovations and recycling solutions together with our partners in industry and science.”

Optimization through teamwork

Even during the two-year development period of the Covestro Adelie, the teamwork of around 50 students led to success: aerodynamics, electrical engineering, driving strategy, chassis, powertrain and structure interlock perfectly. More than 200,000 hours of calculations were required to optimize the exterior shape, plus 10,000 workshop hours for the body, and many more days for electrical and mechanical components and the development of the driving strategy.

“A lot of work, heart and soul and the concentrated experience from our three predecessor models have gone into the Covestro Adelie,” confesses Clemens Odendahl, head of marketing at Team Sonnenwagen. “Now we hope to win the Challenger class, in which we are the only German team competing. There, it’s all about performance and maximum energy efficiency.”

Thanks to the optimizations, the structure of the new model weighs 16 percent less than that of its predecessor, the Photon, and the chassis even has 20 percent less weight. This improvement is also due to some Covestro materials, such as a battery cover made of the high-performance plastic polycarbonate and the construction of the seat shell with thermoplastic polyurethane. The Photon is also currently on campus and will remain there for some time.

More sustainable outfit

But the Aachen-based tinkerers are not only committed to more sustainability on the road – their official outfit was also produced using alternative raw materials with fewer petrochemical components. Both the shoes and the shorts were provided by Covestro’s Chinese partner Huafeng. The two companies jointly developed a design for them using Huafeng’s HAPTIC® textile coating system, which is made with Covestro’s partially bio-based Impranil® CQ DLS/1 polyurethane dispersion.

Covestro wishes Team Sonnenwagen every success and victory in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. This time, 42 teams from 23 countries are taking part in what is probably the toughest solar car race in the world. Under harsh climatic conditions, they have to master the more than 3,000-kilometer route from Darwin to Adelaide as quickly as possible, right across the Australian outback.

About Covestro:

Covestro is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-quality polymer materials and their components. With its innovative products, processes and methods, the company helps enhance sustainability and the quality of life in many areas. Covestro supplies customers around the world in key industries such as mobility, building and living, as well as the electrical and electronics sector. In addition, polymers from Covestro are also used in sectors such as sports and leisure, cosmetics and health, as well as in the chemical industry itself.

The company is committed to becoming fully circular and is striving to become climate neutral by 2035 (scope 1 and 2). Covestro generated sales of EUR 18 billion in fiscal 2022. At the end of 2022, the company had 50 production sites worldwide and employed approximately 18,000 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).

Forward-looking statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Covestro AG. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Covestro’s public reports which are available at www.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

Media Contact:

Frank Rothbarth
Global Trade Media Relations
mailto:frank.rothbarth@covestro.com
+49 175 3025363

Sebastian Bolsinger
Site Communications Germany
mailto:sebastian.bolsinger@covestro.com
+49 2133 237 3077

SOURCE: Covestro AG