TNT has delivered a solar car called Stella Lux from the Netherlands to Australia to compete at the World Solar Challenge, running from October 18-25, 2015. The four-seat prototype will compete in a 3,000km (1,864 mile) race between Darwin and Adelaide.
TNT shipped the car from Eindhoven to Liege in Belgium, then flew it to Singapore and finally to Melbourne. The vehicle’s lithium batteries travelled by boat due to shipping regulations. The car and batteries arrived within a week of each other.
Stella Lux was built by a team of students from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. The wedge-shaped electric car is charged from multiple solar cells placed on its roof. It can travel 621 miles on a single charge at a maximum speed of 77.7mph. The car features a navigation system that provides routes guidance based on weather predictions.
Erik Uljee, managing director, TNT Benelux, said, “We are happy to support Solar Team Eindhoven, a great team of student engineers, in winning the World Solar Challenge for the second time. The automotive sector is a priority industry for TNT and we’re glad to support research and innovation to make road transport safer and sustainable.”
TNT has extensive experience transporting delicate cargo in June 2015, the postal operator delivered the skull of a 66 million-year-old T-Rex from Nevada in the USA to Germany and back again. This summer, TNT also delivered a prototype R1 race car from Frankfurt in Germany to Miami in the USA for Gryphon Racing.
October 13, 2015