The 1998 World Solar Rallye: Akita, Japan

In early August 1998, 81 solar/electric vehicles participated in a three day endurance race in Japan. The objective was to complete as many laps of the 31 km circuit as possible. Some of the cars used state-of-the-art motors, batteries, chassis, solar cells and tyres to produce vehicles which could travel at speeds of 70–80 km/h on about 1 kW of input power. With only 20 kg of battery, some solar cars were travelling around 450 km a day. This paper tells the story of the race and the technological developments behind the successful vehicles.