A student engineering team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison rolled out a new solar-powered race car this week. The vehicle finally has a name, and the team has a long roster. And the competition it was built for has a long course, as we’ve seen by way of WMTV 15 News.
Badger Solar Racing, a student-run group at UW-Madison, used the unveiling to introduce its newest car, called Sunburst. Team leadership said more than 100 current and former students have contributed to the program.
Sunburst is the centerpiece of the group’s competition plans for the coming season, capping a multi-year build that began as soon as the team’s previous car was finished.
The race the team is now pointed at is a cross-country test. The road that brought the team to this point, meanwhile, started with a different competition entirely, one the organization eventually walked away from.
What “Sunburst” Is
According to the UW Foundation, the team finished its previous car, internally called Solar Car 1.5, in the summer of 2024 and has been working on its successor (designated Solar Car 2, and now revealed as Sunburst) with the goal of entering the 2026 American Solar Challenge.
Badger Solar Racing is a student-run organization at UW-Madison that designs, builds and races solar vehicles. President Kyle Ma said more than 100 current and former Badgers have been involved. The team is multidisciplinary, drawing from the College of Engineering’s mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering programs and other disciplines.
How the Team Got Here and What’s Next
The same group existed from 2015 to 2020 as Badgerloop, competing in SpaceX’s hyperloop pod competition. When no new hyperloop event was announced in 2020, the executive committee voted in February 2021 to step away. Members finished and unveiled a final hyperloop pod in June 2021 to honor sponsor commitments, then voted to pivot to solar car racing and rebranded as Badger Solar Racing.
The team’s stated goal is the 2026 American Solar Challenge, a roughly 1,500-mile cross-country race held biannually. Teams qualify through the Formula Sun Grand Prix, an annual three-day closed-track race won by the team logging the most laps. Sunburst is the car Badger Solar Racing intends to take into that pipeline.
We’ll have to wait a bit to see how things shake out, however.