2007 World Solar Challenge: Across The Australian Outback

Motoring Channel Staff - 1/November/2007

Darwin, Australia — The Panasonic World Solar Challenge is an eco-rally of sorts. It tasks entrants with building cars that can travel from one side of the world's largest island continent to the other, from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Adelaide in South Australia.

2007 represents the 20th anniversary of this gruelling event, whose headline grabbing vehicles are always the custom made solar-powered vehicles, constructed for maximum surface area to catch the suns rays and aerodynamic efficiency to reach high speeds. 

This years solar-powered winners, from the Netherlands and Japan, covered the 3000km distance in about 33 hours, which is an incredible feat.

But there's also another car class that you won't see on the news - the everyday cars.

The production class, which includes vehicles you can buy at dealerships right now, showed how efficient some models can be. Officially called the Greenfleet Technology Class, it was interesting to see that hybrid (petrol-electric) models didn't fare as well as the diesel engined vehicles. Here's four of the best:

smart fortwo

The Mercedes-Benz owned micro car company, smart, was the overall winner of the Greenfleet Technology Class. The little fortwo covered 3,568km over seven days with a fuel consumption rate of only 4.61 litres for every 100km travelled (4.6L/100km).

Even more impressive was that the car was driven in an 'everyday' driving style: it cruised along the Northern Territory’s Stuart Highway at speeds reaching 130 km/h with the air-conditioning running the entire time.

The Mercedes Car Group's Australian chief, Horst von Sanden, was naturally chuffed to see the smart fortwo take the honours in the production class: "The goals of our participation in this year’s event were simple. We not only wanted to demonstrate the fortwo’s fuel efficiency under realistic driving conditions but we wanted to do this in a challenging environment that would test the car’s capabilities.

"Being awarded the winner of the production car segment in this year’s World Solar Challenge clearly shows we achieved this, once again highlighting the environmentally sound nature of the smart fortwo," said von Sanden.

Hyundai i30

Though the smart fortwo was the overall winner in the Greenfleet Technology Class, the new Hyundai i30 powered by a 1.6 CRDi turbo diesel engine scored one of the lowest average fuel consumption figures - consuming just 3.2 litres per 100km (3.2L/100km) and emitting just 97g of CO2.

Hyundai's new small car outperformed not just Toyota's Prius hybrid but also diesels from Peugeot and Audi and even a BioBike. Not bad for a vehicle that retails $15,000 less than Toyota Prius at $21,490.

"For many years, Hyundai has brought the latest technology within the reach of ordinary Australians. Here, we've proven that the new i30 CRDi is not only the most affordable diesel in Australia – it's outstandingly fuel efficient as well," said Kevin McCann, the director of marketing at Hyundai Australia. 

"The i30 is a more practical and affordable alternative to expensive and complex hybrid cars, delivering better fuel efficiency and significantly reduced CO2 emissions."

Audi a3 Sportback

Audi brought some celebrity power to the 2007 World Solar Challenge, with Olympic champion swimmer Ian Thorpe and AFL footballer Warren Tredrea driving the pair of Audi A3 Sportback 1.9 TDI e models across the Australian outback.

With the aid of motoring personality Peter McKay, both Thorpy and Tredrea managed to average an incredible 3.3L/100km, almost as efficient as the Hyundai i30.

Travelling a total of 3,543 km from Darwin to Adelaide, the diesel Audis' consumption dropped as low as 2.6L/100km on the journey, while the average C02 emissions were just 98g/km. As Audi's first entry in the World Solar Challenge, this was a strong showing by the German brand

Audi Australia's managing director, Joerg Hofmann says that for Audi the issue of fuel consumption has long been a focus of technical development: "As a result of the brand’s innovations, Audi has used advanced technological solutions to achieve a lasting increase in efficiency. Our performance in this 3,500km challenge is proof of this success.

"The Audi A3 1.9 TDI e model is a clear demonstration of our commitment to reducing fuel consumption and systematically achieving lower emissions than previous generations of Audi vehicles," Mr Hofmann stated.

The A3 Sportback 1.9 TDI e was shown in Australia for the first time at the Australian International Motor Show on 11 October 2007. It will go on sale in Australia later this year.

Peugeot 207

Peugeot entered a pair of 207 XT HDi diesel vehicles and a 6-speed automatic 307 XSE HDi in the 2007 World Solar Challenge, which successfully completed the journey from Darwin to Adelaide as part of the Greenfleet Technology Class.

Driven under everyday conditions, the 207 XT HDi cars averaged a 3.9L/100km, while the 307 achieved a figure of 5.1 litres per 100km. Producing only 118 and 154 grams of CO2 per kilometre respectively, the Peugeot diesels outclassed a number of vehicles including the Toyota Prius hybrid and Saab Biopower.

Peugeot may have been unhappy with its placing in the World Solar Challenge, issuing a press release that stated: "...there are no designated parameters for participants with final fuel consumption figures potentially affected by such things as driving style and speed, number of occupants and weight in the car and use of creature comforts such as air conditioning. It stands to reason that a professional driver alone in a car stripped of all excess weight such as a spare tyre, driving at slower speeds without air conditioning is going to gain a significant fuel consumption advantage.

"As Peugeot are already the proud owners of a number of fuel economy world records, they approached this event purely on the basis of showing the public what sort of fuel economy (and subsequently low emissions) can be achieved under normal driving conditions."

It added that its vehicles were driven by two people and were weighed down "...with luggage on board for a week away for two, brochures for public displays, water supplies, technical equipment, cleaning gear and assorted paraphernalia."

Peugeot's national public relations manger, Mathew McAuley who oversaw the event for Peugeot said, "As Peugeot took a real-world approach to the event the excellent figures we achieved were slightly higher than the two leading teams, who conducted the event in a very serious and theoretically competitive manner.

"The public should be aware, however, that without any sort of uniform set of conditions, comparisons between team results are meaningless.

"We have proven with inexperienced drivers at the helm, and fully loaded cars being used in an every day fashion at realistic speeds, Peugeot provides drivers with a stylish, practical and economical choice. The 207 HDi for example, has a range of over 1250km per 50 litre tank based on the economy achieved on the run."

Other Vehicles

Some of the other vehicles entered in the eco rally included the following vehicles:

• Biobike: 3.5L/100km (71g of CO2 per kilometre).

• Toyota Prius: 5.6L/100km (146g of CO2 per kilometre).

• Ethanol SAAB BioPower: 9.3L/100km (148g of CO2 per kilometre).