Bridgestone to supply solar car tyres to UiTM’s Eco Photon Solar Racing Team competing in the 2019 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge

The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, one of the world’s most well- known solar car events returns in 2019, bringing together teams from all around the globe to challenge electric vehicle standards.

Bridgestone Tyre Malaysia showed their support as sponsor by giving a warm send-off to the sole Malaysian participant, Eco Photon Solar Racing Team from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), who will be representing the nation for the third time. To further encourage their commitment towards the event, Bridgestone sponsored “ECOPIA with ologic” tyres from vehicle testing to the race.

““We are proud and honoured to support UiTM’s Eco Photon Solar Racing Team to the leading event. The “ECOPIA with ologic” is tyre engineered with Bridgestone fuel saving technology which is designed specifically for solar cars. The tyre comes with a wider diameter which limits changes in the shape of the contact patch to yield lower rolling resistance, thus improves fuel efficiency. As we continue to design and develop high-performing tyres for such innovative top-level series, Bridgestone also aims to reduce environmental impact via our fuel-saving product,” said Michael Chung, Managing Director of Bridgestone Tyre Malaysia.

The third generation Eco Photon Solar Racing Team will be heading on a 3000 kilometre journey from Darwin to Adelaide from 13 to 20 October 2019 with Tigris, the official name chosen for their solar car. The highly optimized carbon fibre solar car which comprises of an upgraded self-built monitoring system with high accuracy measurements and robust safety system to prevent any electrical shortage is all set to compete in the Challenger class, one of the three classes in the challenge.

“With all the improvements from previous car and the new technology implemented, we aim to be on the top 5 in the Challenger class. We are also eyeing for the 'Best Creative and Multimedia' award as well as 'Best Safety Prioritized' award.”, said Syazwan, the team’s President.

Firmly rooted in the core values of Bridgestone’s global corporate social responsibility commitment, Our Way to Serve: mobility, people and environment, The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge embodies that philosophy with their purpose to contribute to the development of solar cars, support young engineers, and contribute to the environment while using a new power source: solar light.

Teams to be supplied w ith tyres by Bridgestone:

*No.	Team	School	Country/Region
5	SunSPEC	Singapore Polytechnic University	Singapore
7	Adelaide University Solar Racing Team	Adelaide University	Australia
8	Agoria Solar Team	Solar Team vzw	Belgium
9	Onda Solare	University of Bologna	Italy
10	Tokai University Solar Car Team	Tokai University	Japan
11	SolarCar-Team Hochschule Bochum	Bochum University of Applied Sciences	Germany
12	Cambridge University Eco Racing	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
14	Flinders Automotive Solar Team	Flinders University	Australia
15	Western Sydney Solar Team	Western Sydney University	Australia
16	Stanford Solar Car Project	Stanford University	United States of America
18	UiTM EcoPhoton Solar Racing Team	Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)	Malaysia
25	IVE Engineering Solar Car Team	Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education	Hong Kong
30	Team Arrow	Team Arrow Racing Association	Australia
35	University  of  Minnesota  Solar Vehicle Project	University of Minnesota	United States of America
37	Goko High School	Goko High School	Japan
40	Solar Team Eindhoven	Eindhoven University of Technology	Netherlands
41	MTAA Super Sol Invictus	The Australian National University	Australia
42	TAFE South Australia	TAFE South Australia	Australia
45	Lodz Solar Team	Lodz University of Technology	Poland
47	NITech Solar Racing	Nagoya Institute of Technology	Japan
49	Siam Technology Motor Sport (STC3)	Siam Technology College	Thailand
51	Chalmers Solar Team	Chalmers  University  of Technology, Department    of Industrial and Materials Science	Sweden
55	Mines Rabat Solar Team	National School of Mines Rabat	Morocco

66	CalSol	University of California, Berkeley	United States of America
75	Sunswift	University of New South Wales	Australia
77	Blue Sky Solar Racing	University of Toronto	Canada
80	Sun Shuttle	Beijing Institute of Technology	China
82	KUST (Kookmin Univ. Solarcar Team)	Kookmin University	South Korea
84	Team Solaris	Dokuz Eylül University	Turkey
88	Kogakuin University Solar Team	Kogakuin University Solar Team	Japan
92	Eclipse	École de technologie supérieure	Canada
98	ATN Solar Car Team	Australian Technology Network of Universities	Australia

*Note: No. represents the number that the team will adorn while competing in the 2019 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.

Overview of BWSC:
Official Name: 2019 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge
Date: October 13-20, 2019
Host Country: Australia (Start: Darwin; Goal: Adelaide)
Host: South Australian Tourism Commission
Race Classes
Challenger Class
A race to reach the goal the quickest in vehicles designed for speed; vehicles require four wheels and one driver.
Cruiser Class
A race testing vehicles’ energy efficiency and practicality; vehicles must have four wheels and be able to be ridden by one driver and more than one passenger.
Adventure Class
A race open to vehicles that are based on the criteria for participating in previous BWSC races or that otherwise do not meet the requirements to compete in the Challenger Class or Cruiser Class.

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