The goal of the Sasol Solar Challenge 2022 is to cross the finish line with the most kilometers driven.

We hear you think: How is this possible if you have a fixed route everyday that is the same for every participating team? Well there is a simple explanation for this. Each day there is a loop included in the route. This loop can be 20 or even 80 kilometers, depending on the day of the race.

Each team can choose how many times they will drive the loop in order to gain more kilometers than the other participating teams. However, there are some challenges here.

You can drive as many loops as you want, but you have to reach the end of day location before 17.00h. If your solar car cannot reach this location , you will receive a time penalty for the next day. This means you will start later than the other teams, which gives you less time to drive the amount of kilometers you want to reach.

Furthermore, there are also loop stops and control stops. After each loop your team drives you have to stop your solar car at the beginning of the loop for five minutes and the driver must exit the car. After five minutes the driver again enter the car and start another loop or continue the set route of the race. You can do this as many times you like.

However, one of the stops you make has to be the control stop. Each team needs to perform one control stop per day. This will be at the same location as the loop stop, only a control stop takes 30 minutes instead of five. This stop can be used as a lunch break and/or recharging the solar car for example. Each team can choose what type of stop to perform every time they want to start a loop. You can start with a control stop followed by driving five loops for example, but you can also drive multiple loops before taking a break with the control stop.

The plan for all the stops and amount of loops is up to our strategist, but is also depending on the sun, the clouds and the competition.