2015

NTN Corporation (hereafter, NTN) hereby announces that the Kogakuin University solar car project that it provides support to particiapted in the world's best known solar car race “Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2015” and finished an impressive second in the “Cruiser Class”.

The Kogakuin University solar car project was launched in 2009 to give students the engineering challenge and develop their creativity, and adopts the concept of creating next-generation electric vehicles, instead of copying existing models. The project has taken part in numerous solar car races since, and NTN has provided support to the project from 2013 by supplying bearings and technical advice.

The project also finished first overall as well as first in its class in the “World Green Challenge”, global solar car race held last year in Ogata, Akita Prefecture, Japan.

The newly developed solar car “OWL” participated in the “Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2015” held in Australia between October 18 and 25, 2015. In its first attempt at the race in 2013, Kogakuin University competed in the single-driver four-wheel car “Challenger Class,” however was unfortunately unable to complete the race. Building on this experience, this year the project participated in the “Cruiser Class” in which participants compete in more practical situation, by four-wheel vehicle designed for at least two occupants and was the only team from Japan in the class.

As a result, the car traveled approximately 3,000 km across the Australian continent in six days to finish in Adelaide first in its class. After factoring in the practical score in areas other than speed and distance driven, the team finally ended in second place after being overtaken by the team from Netherlands.

With the support of numerous companies and organizations around the world including NTN, the solar car that the students built featured a collection of advanced Japanese technologies, and demonstrated to the world the spirit of Japanese “Monozukuri.”

NTN will continue providing support to activities conducted by the Kogakuin University solar car project that is aiming to develop safer and even more practical solar cars.

World Solar Challenge

The “World Solar Challenge” is the world's largest solar car race, and is held every other year, covering 3,000 km across the Australian continent from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south. There are three classes that participating teams compete in: “Challenger Class,” “Cruiser Class” and “Adventure Class.”

This race was held from October 18 to 25, 2015.

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