Celebrating Another Milestone Among Global Solar Pioneers
- Team Sonnenwagen finishes in top position at the World Solar Challenge 2025
- More than 3,000 kilometers through the Australian outback
- Fastest qualifying lap of all teams
- More than ten Covestro materials used
Team Sonnenwagen finished the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge with a top position. The race is considered the toughest solar car race in the world and covers more than 3,000 kilometers from Darwin to Adelaide through the Australian outback.
In qualifying, the Covestro Ithon secured pole position with a time of 1:52.50 minutes, setting a new team record. Never before has a Team Sonnenwagen solar race car been faster on the circuit in Darwin. After five days of racing, the new Sonnenwagen Covestro Ithon finished in fourth place – a world-class performance in a strong field of 37 teams from 18 countries, made possible in part by Covestro products.
“Regardless of the outcome of the race, Team Sonnenwagen has done a great job in my opinion,” says Dr. Thorsten Dreier, Chief Technology Officer at Covestro. “What these students from Aachen have achieved with the design of their solar car is a demonstration of innovative strength, team spirit, and determination. They deserve nothing but congratulations. And I am always delighted that we are able to support this extraordinary team with our innovative and sustainable technologies and our expertise.”
“We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved,” says Leonie Brandt, Chair of Team Sonnenwagen Aachen. “Just finishing this race is an enormous achievement – and with Æthon, we made it into the ranks of the world’s best teams. Our vehicle proved itself under extreme conditions, and we are taking away many important insights.”
Covestro has been supporting Team Sonnenwagen since its founding in 2017 and has been its main sponsor and technology partner since 2018. The company is convinced that more sustainable high-performance plastics are key to climate-neutral and circular mobility. Together with customers and partners, Covestro is continuously developing new material solutions and recycling technologies for this purpose.
As with previous vehicles, the Ithon also relied on more sustainable high-performance plastics from Covestro – this time even more than ever before: over ten different materials from the company were used in the car.
One example of the application of our raw materials is chemically recycled car seat foam, which offers comfort while conserving resources. Sustainable mass-balanced Vulkollan, a particularly resilient elastomer that absorbs shocks between the battery and the chassis, was also used to protect the structure. For the cell holders, the team used Makrolon TC, a thermally conductive polycarbonate that helps to reduce the temperature during battery charging and discharging, thereby increasing the battery’s service life. The coating cures at room temperature and contains a binder with a high proportion of sustainable Covestro raw materials. In addition, other Covestro raw materials were used as materials in the cockpit hood, outer shell, headlights, seat, and steering wheel, for example.
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