A team of undergraduate engineering students at the University of NSW has smashed the world speed record for electric vehicles, with their Sunswift car averaging more than 100 km/h over 500 kilometres on a single battery charge.
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The record - which had stood at 73 km/h for 26 years - was set at a race track near Geelong in July but only now confirmed by the world motorsports governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile.
"We always knew we were going to break it," said Hayden Smith, the project's director and a third-year software engineering student. "We wanted a record that people could say 'wow' ".
The next challenge is to get the vehicle registered for use on public roads by March. That work includes adding headlights and windscreen wipers - features that had been omitted to keep the car's weight to just 320 kilograms, including a 60-kilogram battery.
Its body is coated with solar photovoltaic cells for use in long-range races such as the biennial World Solar Challenge over 3000 kilometres from Darwin to Adelaide. The solar panels were disconnected from the battery for the speed record attempt.
Mr Smith said dozens of students had been involved in developing the car, with some working as many as 60 hours a week to get the vehicle ready for the record run. While some students will write their undergraduate theses on the project, most get no academic credit for their work, he said.
The biggest challenge was combining the students' different skills - from electrical to mechanical and software engineering - and ensuring the technology worked.
Also challenging was the need for students to camp in tents for as many as nine days during the road trip to Geelong to save money.
The sacrifices are worth it, with previous students finding work with companies such as emerging US-based electric carmaker Tesla.
"We're trying to build the engineers of the future," Mr Smith said.
Australian sales of electric cars are minimal for now - with just 182 sold in the first nine months of the year, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
Demand, though, is expected to soar in the future as producers such as BMW offer more electric models, and prices fall closer to those with conventional combustion engines.
