RA27, which has been manufactured as a result of 750 hours of hard work of the AR-GE teams of Near East University, has given start at the “Sasol South Africa Solar Challenge”; a competition in South Africa. It was revealed that Turkish Ambassador to Pretoria, Kaan Eser had attended the start of the competition that is to be completed over eight days.

According to the press info release issued by the Directorate of Press and Public Relations of Near East University, the competition titled as “Sasol South Africa Solar Challenge” started in Pretoria, capital of South Africa, on 24th September, 2016 and it is to end in Cape Town on 1st October, 2016. Furthermore, it was expressed that the competition was organised by Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA) and Motorsport South Africa (MSA) annually and that this year, there were 16 teams participating from Holland, Japan, Hungary, Turkey, Poland and South Africa.

Titled as “Sasol South African Solar Challenge” is held yearly and each year, the route to be followed might slightly change. This year, the competition has started from Pretoria and it is to end in Cape Town, on roads that are not closed to normal traffic flow. The competition will come to an end by covering 2500km. RA27 is manufactured with cutting-edge technology; it operates with 1800 DC motors, has 392 custom-engineered solar panels and 426 batteries. RA27 has four wheels and is able to make a maximum speed of 150 km/h and even under conditions where there is no sunlight, it has the capacity to run for 440 km.

The competition is live streamed…

It was expressed that the competition is live streamed and those who are interested in following up, or keeping track of the vehicle of Near East University RA27 have the opportunity to do so via solarcar.neu.edu.tr.