Turkish university’s solar car ranks third in Belgium race
Zülal Atagün - ISTANBUL
Solar car “ARIba ZES X,” produced by a team of students from Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ), has ranked third in the European Solar Challenge, a solar car race held in Belgium.
The team participated in the 24-hour race of the 2022 European Solar Challenge with ARIba ZES X, on which they worked for a year.
In the competition, all the vehicles had the right to charge three times for one hour each, while İTÜ’s solar car was charged for a total of 155 minutes.
The car, which entered the last hour of the race in third place, gradually reduced the gap with Aachen University’s car in second place. But, as there was not enough time, it finished the race as the third team with 257 laps.
Abdullah Çalışkan, one of the team members, said they worked very hard during the one year preparing for the race, adding that they had a successful pre-race process.
Regarding the difficulties at the beginning of the race, Çalışkan stated, “Though the precipitation scared us at the beginning, we got a solid result with the right strategy.”
“Carrying the Turkish flag to the peak of Europe enabled us to forget all the difficulties we had,” he added.
The team, which also participated in the European Solar Challenge races in 2016 and 2020, was awarded the “Brain Sport Award” and “Spirit of the Event,” respectively.
Aiming to strengthen the university-industry-student triangle, the team offers an environmentalist solution to the climate crisis by emphasizing the importance of alternative energy sources.
Since 2004, they received more than 24 awards on three continents for the cars it has been producing.
