What's It All About?

To get things rolling we thought we'd fill you in with all the important details of the Electric Vehicle Challenge.

In short, it is a competition in which teams build a battery powered electric vehicle (about the size of a go-kart) in order to compete in a one hour endurance race. The team who's car does the most amount of laps in the one hour of the circuit track are the winners.

In long. Firstly its an engineering challenge in designing and building a lightweight, stable, comfortable, safe, efficient and aerodynamic car that fits within the constraints of the competition rules. Secondly, in choosing the best and most efficient electronics including motors, controllers and most importantly getting good batteries that are within the amp/hr rating allowed in the competition. Thirdly, in keeping a track of your costings as all cars are restricted to a $1,200 budget, which means carefully deciding where to spend the most amount of money - chassis, drive train, batteries??? And finally, driving the vehicle. It is all well and good to have a very efficient well built car, but if you can't drive smoothly and with efficiency in mind, then you're hugely disadvantaging your chances.

If your team can tick most if not all these boxes, then you are a real contender - an eV Challenger.

Here is a link to the eV Challenge website. I think its only a temporary one but it has a bit more info on the techy stuff.  http://evchallenge.org.au/Ev_Challenge/Home.html

Oscar

We Are, The eV Challengers

2009 - A group of dedicated physics students set themselves the task of building a small battery powered vehicle to compete in the eV Challenge. After constructing our vehicle which included a steering system where the chassis leaned into corners (something never done before in the eV Challenge) our team came 3rd in our battery class and 5th overall.

2010 - We revamped the car, making it far more efficient with several ingenious design and engineering solutions. We came 1ST OVERALL and set a new event RECORD in a strong field of around 50 other competitors including other schools, tafes and private entrants.

Now - With high school finished most of our team have gone in other directions leaving only the two most committed team members, Oscar Fehlberg and Guy McCauley. We Are, The eV Challengers!

Over the next few months we will be sharing our experiences in designing and building our vehicle and filling you in on the details of the eV Challenge.
Oscar