Most wins of the World Solar Challenge

The most wins of the World Solar Challenge is seven, by the Nuon Solar Team (NLD) from the Delft University of Technology. The team's first win came in 2001 (also the first year they entered). They followed this with back-to-back victories in 2003, 2005 and 2007, before having their winning streak broken by the Tokai Challenger, from Tokai University (Japan), which won in 2009 and 2011. Nuon reclaimed their title in 2013 and won again in 2015 and 2017. The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is an endurance race for solar-powered cars. It was first run in 1987, and has been held every other year since 1999. The race is run during the southern-hemisphere summer along a 3,022-km (1,878-mile) route from Darwin, Northern Territory and Adelaide, South Australia. Entrants are divided into three categories: Challengers (one-person cars racing for overall victory), Cruisers (multi-passenger vehicles judged on their energy efficiency) and Adventurers (non-competitive entrants who aim simply to compete the course).

The 2017 race was marked by particularly tricky conditions for the entrants. The tiny solar vehicles had to contend with thunderstorms, heavy cloud cover and high winds – a terrifying prospect for the drivers of these ultra-lightweight, sail-like cars. As a consequence, the average speeds were lower than they have been in previous years.

Nuon are named after their principal sponsor, Dutch utility company N.V. Nuon Energy. In 2015 their entry, Nuna8, beat Solar Team Twente's (NLD) Red One by only eight minutes – almost a photo finish for a race that takes around 40 hours to complete.

The Nuon Solar Team's Nuna4 (which ran the 2005 race) also set the record for the highest average speed in the World Solar Challenge, with 102.75 km/h (63.84 mph). This record is unlikely to be beaten as the race is held on public roads with a speed limit of 130 km/h.

The high speeds of the 2005 entrants also caused major problems for the support crews trying to keep up with them in conventional cars. It was decided that subsequent races would put more of an emphasis on reliability, safety and efficiency than absolute speed.