The Brunel Solar Team has started building their new solar car in Zwolle, Netherlands. With the new Nuna 12 the team hopes to win the World Solar Challenge later this year. Besides offering hands-on support during the production, AOC is supplying its high-quality products used for making the exterior and load-bearing construction of Nuna.
With the Nuna 12, the Delft student team will participate in the 3021 km long race in September 2023, crossing the Australian outback. The competition features more than 50 international teams, and is held in Australia once every two years. It is the fourth time that the team has chosen Zwolle as its location for the construction of the solar car. The reason for this choice is the proximity of the R&D center of partner AOC. Besides offering hands-on support during the car production, AOC is supplying its high-quality products used for making the exterior and load-bearing construction of Nuna 12.
“This will be three months of incredibly hard work, but together we will make it possible”, says Pepijn Theeuwes. He is one of the team members who will move to Zwolle in the next three months to produce the car together with the other team members.
Construction start
Alderman Gerdien Rots, representing Zwolle local government, got the Brunel Solar Team started with the construction, with the symbolic production of the first piece of carbon fiber reinforced laminate. Rots about the start of the construction of Nuna 12: 'We are proud that the construction of the solar car will again take place in Zwolle. It is important for Zwolle to be a center of technical innovations. Also, as municipality we strongly support the sustainability focus of the team.”
Big challenge
The Brunel Solar Team consists of 18 students and is headed by team captain Lennart Hessels since September 2022: “The start of the construction of Nuna 12 is really a milestone for us that we have been looking forward to for a long time. After an intensive preparation period, we can now really get started. This phase brings new challenges, because the construction of the body work will take place in Zwolle, while the other half of the team continues to work in Delft with support of to our partner AOC.”
Nuna 12 is expected to be unveiled at the end of June. The team will leave for Australia by the end of August in order to prepare for the race that will take place from October 22-29.
