2007 Panasonic World Solar Challenge

Hyundai's new i30 model showed the way as a diverse field of entrants in the 2007 Panasonic World Solar Challenge rushed from Darwin to Adelaide during October.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the World Solar Challenge was open to a varied assortment of vehicles from all around the word, all aimed at reducing environmental impact to the absolute minimum.

The field started rolling into Adelaide on October 25 after seven days and 3000km on the road from Darwin.

It comprised a collection of solar powered and fuel-consuming vehicles including turbo-diesels and various hybrids using a diversity of fuels ranging from petrol to Biodiesel, divided into three classes including "Challenge" and "Adventure" classes for solar cars, and the "Greenfleet Technology class" for "clean, green road vehicles exhibiting low emission technologies."

Entrants in the 2007 event faced the desolation of the Australian desert as they either squeezed the maximum out of their fuel load, or extracted the last drop of energy from the sun (more here).

The overall winner of the Panasonic World Solar Challenge Trophy was the Nuon Solar team's purely solar "Nuna4" in the Challenger class, ahead of the Umicore Solar Team's "Umicar Infinity" in second place and the Aurora Vehicle Association Inc's "Aurora 101" in third.

In the also purely solar "Adventure" class, first place was taken by the Tiga solar vehicle entered by the Ashiya University in Japan, followed across the line by Apolla-V from the National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences in second place, and the Aviva Southern Aurora in third.

And, in the "Greenfleet" technology class, it was Hyundai's new turbo-diesel i30 topping a field that included Toyota's Prius hybrid, Audi's turbo-diesel A3, Peugeot's turbo-diesel 207 and 307 models, and a turbo-petrol Smart ForTwo micro car.

With an average fuel consumption of just 3.2lt/100km, the Hyundai bettered the Audi A3 Sportback turbo-diesel's 3.3lt/100km and the Peugeot 207 turbo diesel's 3.9lt/100km.

The i30, driven by Wayne Eckersley and automotive journalist John Cadogan, also returned the lowest CO2 figures with average CO2 emissions of 97g/km, ahead of the Audi at 98g/km and the Peugeot at 118g/km.

It was a narrow win to the Hyundai, since the Audi, driven by Port Adelaide footballer Warren Tredrea and swimming champ Ian Thorpe, used an average of 3.3lt/100km for the journey.

The Toyota Prius petrol-electric hybrid managed 5.6 L/100km and 146g/km, behind the conventional-engined Smart ForTwo petrol turbo's 4.6L/100km and 120g/km.

The "Experimental" class included vehicles as diverse as Saab's future possibility for Australia, the Team Ethanol Saab BioPower (85 per cent Ethanol plus unleaded petrol, 9.3lt/100km 148g/km) and the petrol-electric "Twike" hybrid that topped the class with 3.0lt/100km (plus 0.52 kWh/100km) and 83g/km.

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