Eolian 2 – Chile’s Solar Car from the Atacama to Australia

Chile has one of the sunniest places on Earth: the Atacama Desert. So it is no surprise that Chilean students build solar cars. The pioneers are the Eolian team of the University of Chile, a mix of mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and industrial designers.

The first Eolian (2007) was Chile’s first solar car. It was built by students who had previously worked on an electric car for a local race called Formula-i. It is a three-wheeler with two front wheels and one rear wheel, a chassis of composite with a balsa wood core, a fibreglass body, 6 m² of solar cells, a permanent-magnet in-wheel motor in the rear wheel and two lithium battery packs. It finished 14th in the 2007 World Solar Challenge.

In 2011 a new team built Eolian 2. It kept the basic layout but improved the aerodynamics, the structure and the handling, and its chassis was made with carbon fibre, which made it lighter. The team faced a tough calendar: the Atacama Solar Challenge and the World Solar Challenge in Australia were only weeks apart. Eolian 2 took second place in the Atacama, then was split into three pieces to be shipped to Australia, where it finished 22nd.

The photo at the top shows Eolian 2 in front of La Moneda Palace in Santiago, the seat of the Chilean president. Solar racing in South America has grown since then, with the Atacama race attracting teams from across the continent. More student racers: Aurora 101 (Australia) and Huawei Sonnenwagen (Germany).

Technical data

Photos

• Top photo: Anonimosanhueza / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• The Eolian 2 team before the start of the 2011 Atacama Solar… Photo: Efim / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• The first Eolian (2007), front view. Photo: Anonimosanhueza / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Sources

• Wikipedia: Eolian (Solar car)
• Universidad de Chile: Eolian2, el nuevo auto solar