THE future of transport pulled into Bathurst on Saturday with fresh ideas to inspire the city.
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The solar-electric vehicle holds the world record for the fastest electric car over 500 kilometres.
Built and run by undergraduate students in the Sunswift program at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), the car attracted a lot of attention in Bathurst during the visit.
Sunswift business manager Connor O’Shea said there were a number of reasons students brought the car to Bathurst.
“It’s to show people that sustainable transport is possible,” he said.
“We had a lot of reaction from people who didn’t know about the project and that it existed.”
Sunswift’s latest model eVe is now undergoing a final inspection for road legality, which would make it the first road legal solar car in the southern hemisphere.
“It’s got a top speed of 140km/h,” Mr O’Shea said.
He said following the car’s world record, UNSW students set their sights on a new project – modifying the car to make it road legal.
It's to show people that sustainable transport is possible.
- University of New South Wales Sunswift business manager Connor O’Shea
A number of modifications have already taken place including replacing the plastic windscreen with a glass one, installing additional reinforcement and safety alterations.
Mr O’Shea said far from simply being a university project, solar and electric transport was “very viable".
“We want to show how possible it really is,” he said.
Mr O’Shea said unfortunately in Australia there has not been a very big uptake of electric cars by people purchasing new vehicles.
Compared to the United States, there is a distinct lack of infrastructure for these type of cars in Australia, he said.
“There’s only a couple of charging stations between Sydney and Melbourne, it’d be like only having a couple of petrol stations on the route,” he said.
He said if it possible for students to build such a successful solar-electric vehicle, then it would be possible for car manufacturers to develop them as well.
The Sunswift project has been building solar and electric cars for the past 20 years and the program involves students in a number of different UNSW disciplines at the university.