Same Drive, New Adventure

Our New Chapter - The Rallye du Maroc

Solar Team Twente will compete in the Rallye du Maroc. This is known as one of the toughest existing rally-raid competitions. This event takes place every year around the end of September as part of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship. Competitors face about 2000 of off-road kilometers over the course of a full week. Each day entails a stage of hundreds of kilometres through the desert. There is no predefined course: entrants have to navigate their way through the desert using a roadbook with direction notes and checkpoints. The Rallye du Maroc is often seen as the ultimate preparation for the Dakar Rally: the length of that event gave it its reputation as one of the most gruelling endurance challenges for both human and machine.

Mission Desert Rally - The Rallye du Maroc Open Category

A special category of the Rallye du Maroc is the Open Class. This class serves as an accessible class for vehicles and prototypes without the strict constraints of the FIA W2RC regulations. With the main competition relying on combustion fuels, this class is open for fully electric, hybrid or bio-fuel prototypes. It serves as a perfect desert playground for our innovative technologies. 

As more and more motorsport organizations strive for a sustainable future, we aim to show how long distances in the toughest environments are still possible with electric, renewable energy. With this class open for prototypes, there is plenty of room for innovation for us to bring our solar technology to the desert. Off-grid charging technology or battery swaps also belong to the vast realm of possibilities, directly impacting the current societal challenges within the energy transition.

Beyond Asphalt - The Challenge & Competition

Building a solar-powered vehicle to last 3000 km through the Australian outback was no small feat. Competing amongst the fastest solar teams in the world, we have gathered over two decades of experience in this field of engineering and great human effort. As a student team, our ambition is to build a vehicle that can take on roads beyond the asphalt of the Stuart Highway. The Rallye du Maroc provides us with the ultimate test to see if our multidisciplinary engineering efforts can withstand the brutal conditions of the desert where asphalt is nowhere to be seen. 

Our aim is to transfer as much of our current knowledge and expertise as possible into this new chapter: a similar but also completely uncharted roadmap. By aiming to finish as many stages as possible, we wish to show how off-grid electric transportation is feasible in even the most remote, rugged locations. To provide a doable challenge, the organization provides refuelling points every 120 km, where we can make sure that we continue with a full battery. 

Being a pioneer as the first team that aims to take on the stages fully electric, we aim to test our speed and endurance against the regular vehicles that run on fossil fuel. We will be the first international student team in the competition. We can push the boundaries of what is possible, optimising for sustainability and not just for speed.

Our Mission

Our mission? To test sustainable technological innovations in the most extreme conditions, contribute to societal challenges, and represent Twente as an important technology hub on the world stage. Solar Team Twente has always strived to push the limits of electric mobility and to demonstrate that sustainability is possible everywhere. Now, we take this to the extreme, by focusing on a new frontier: rallying on solar energy. We strive to be more than just a racing team. We want to make a real impact on the world.