Detroit's Latest, the Solar-Powered Infinium Race Car, Unfortunately Can't Be Bought

The University of Michigan--America's solar-racing powerhouse--will compete on the world stage with Infinium, crossing Australia in the World Solar Challenge

By Sally Younger Posted 06.08.2009 at 5:05 pm 5 Comments

Infinium: University of Michigan

In the shadow of the state’s struggling automakers, the University of Michigan solar engineering team—one of the most advanced in the country--unveiled its newest solar-powered race car, Infinium. With the $1 million racer they hope to vanquish the competition at the World Solar Challenge, a six-day 1,800 mile sprint across Australia using only the southern hemisphere sunlight. Needless to say, it looks fast.

At 600 lbs, and as aerodynamic as a Corvette, Infinium’s exceptionally lightweight frame is spun from carbon fiber composite. The car’s innards, like the suspension, are aluminum or titanium.

“There is hardly any steel in the car,” says Michigan team manager Steven Hechtman.

Infinium Side View: University of Michigan

More spacecraft than automobile, Infinium is plastered in black photovoltaic strips capable of drinking sunlight at rates rivaling the solar cells found on spacecraft. A specially-designed electric motor encased in one of the car’s three wheels peaks at 98 percent efficiency. The 50 lb lithium battery is 1/3 the size of the Chevy Volt’s and supplies the car for up to 200 miles without a drop of sunny fuel.

Technological leaps made in programs like Michigan’s spur eventual advancements in car manufacturing, according to Hechtman. Skilled alumni acquire cutting-edge knowledge they can bring to private industry, and sponsors like Ford keep an eye on progress.

“We’ve been using lithium batteries for 10 years,” says Hechtman, “but they are only now about to be used in production vehicles.”

The 5-time North American winners have placed third several times at the World Solar Challenge and with Infinium they seek redemption. An early pileup derailed their hopes at the last world event.

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5 Comments

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rlenston

06/08/09 at 5:51 pm

How can I view this race? Will there be video? I MUST know!!

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jacob sperry

06/10/09 at 12:34 pm

is thar a video

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ellenbetty

10/15/09 at 10:42 pm

A million dollar solar powered car. what a useless vehicle. U of M would have gotten more value spending that millon dollars to put new designs of solar panels on the roofs of buildings for testing, plus using the electric generated from those solar panels to do research into ways to store electric power for later use in lighting, heating and cooling buildings.

It seems like there is not one person at U of M smart enough to speak up about what a waste of money such vehicles are. Let alone smart enough to protest this waste of money by figuring out how many tons of CO2 polution will be put into the air just to ship that piece of junk, and the team to support it during this race, down under, and then back to the US.

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quasi44

10/29/09 at 9:32 pm

ellenbetty, I'd be with you on this if I didn't know for a fact that this car is the culmination of years of designs, trial and error, scratching and clawing for sponsorship, and just plain old elbow grease that would have cost probably 25-50 mil for Ford to do it. A one mil price tag on the advances they have made is money well spent, and definitely will filter down to products that we will use in the years to come. Go Wolverines!

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ford8n1

10/30/09 at 5:05 am

My oh my! Henry Ford many years ago scared his neighbors with his noisy cantankerous contraption of a car steered with a crude tiller. People yelled get a horse. Well later Americans and others scooped up better than 5 million model T's later replaced with the A models. This my dear lady is a prototype of a new vehicle that when further developed may provide transportation for when our dwindling oil resources are gone. When Ford first started producing cars they were around a pricey $1200 but later they dropped with mass production to about $245. Give it time and the technology first broken in with this concept vehicle will be a savior of generations not born yet. Hey even Edison's light bulb was not embraced by those who still lit the night with kerosene lanterns or candles. AS some would say as Martin Luther King "I have a dream!" This dream is energy independence from foreign oil.