Covestro extends its support to the Sonnenwagen team of students from RWTH Aachen University and FH Aachen, who are developing an electric car powered by solar energy to compete in the world's toughest solar car race – the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2019. Covestro as a main sponsor is supporting with innovative materials and technical services.
Partnership for Solar Mobility
Sustainability is a central component of Covestro's corporate strategy, and solar mobility could make an important contribution to climate protection and the conservation of fossil resources. This makes Covestro to support this project and intensify its cooperation with the Sonnenwagen Team.
As a global provider of innovative and sustainable materials solutions, Covestro shares the students' enthusiasm and will work with them to push the boundaries of that which is possible and make the project a success.
One of Covestro's forward-looking goals is to support automotive concepts in which vehicles generate energy while in motion. Another objective is to test materials that could later be used in other applications. Trends, such as electric mobility, networking, autonomous driving and car sharing require new vehicle concepts and technologies. Lightweight and functional materials from Covestro reduce fuel consumption, play an important role in extending the range of electric vehicles and impart the required stability.
Sonnenwagen Team Achievements
Following the initial successful participation at the race in Australia 2017 as "Best Newcomer" and the third place at the European Solar Challenge 2018, the team now wants to build on these experiences and challenge the next step at the World Solar Challenge 2019. "There we want to take on the challenge of the world's leading developers from Delft, Michigan and Leuven in Belgium," says Markus Eckstein, first chairman for the Sonnenwagen Team.
Julia Cramer, heading the project at Covestro, explains: "We have been working together with the renowned RTWH Aachen for a long time and, after the successful cooperation in 2017, are now supporting the solar car project with a variety of materials and technical services as well as being the main sponsor". The primary objective is to test new materials under the extreme climatic conditions of the track.
Source: https://www.covestro.com/en