The Solis story, from a 2012 idea to Hyperion

Gândul reports the official launch of SOLIS Hyperion, the team's newest vehicle, ahead of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2025. The students would face 36 other teams from 18 countries over more than 3,000 km from Darwin to Adelaide, with solar energy and a battery of at most 3 kWh. From EV1 to Hyperion, the paper counts five generations of vehicles, raced in Belgium, Italy and Australia.

“For example, Solis EV4 was built in a record time of just 9 months, with limited resources and extremely tight deadlines.”

Gabriela Andronache, Solis team coordinator

Hyperion keeps the carbon monocoque of the previous vehicle, with a longer wheelbase and a solar area increased to 6 square metres. It has Halo protection for the driver, lights designed and built by the team, a 3 kWh battery and a motor proven on earlier vehicles, and it is 5,225 mm long. Gândul also notes that in 2023 EV3 covered 1,200 km of the same race on solar power.

Coordinator Gabriela Andronache tells the story: Ștefan Breban met the Hélios Solar Car team while studying in Lille between 2005 and 2011, first tried to launch the idea at UTCN in 2012, and in 2018, with Professor Călin Neamțu, the project took shape. She quotes Ervin Bálint, team manager of the first student team: performance comes from passion, knowledge transfer and continuity.

Andronache also describes the workload. Many students give their free time to the project, and some have jobs to support themselves. EV4 was built in nine months, on limited resources. Gândul lists the team's milestones, from seven laps with EV1 at Zolder in 2021 to EV2's 150 laps in 2022, and its next aim: a top-ten finish in Australia.