Baja 1000 Goes Electric With New Solar-Powered CategoryBaja 1000 Goes Electric With New Solar-Powered Category

The Sun Cup Challenge sounds like something you might find in a Mario Kart video game, next to the Mushroom Cup and Star Cup, but the reality is much more significant.
This year, the Sun Cup Challenge is a competition within the mighty Baja 1000 race, where competitors tackle a thousand miles of sun and desert on the Baja peninsula in Mexico.
What sets the Sun Cup participants apart is their choice of power–electric propulsion, using solar-generated electricity.
For most vehicles, the Baja is a struggle to even complete, with only 49 percent of starters making the finish, and solar-powered electric vehicles competing in the Sun Cup Challenege will be the first of their kind to do so.
It’s all about proving that electric vehicles can compete against–and beat–their fossil-fueled counterparts.
With electric cars also competing at high levels in this year’s Pikes Peak International hill climb, and with a hybrid vehicle winning at Le Mans back in June, we’re now at a point where alternative-fuel vehicles aren’t just more efficient than their regular cousins, but potentially quicker too.
What’s more, development in the harshest of conditions can only benefit future road cars–just as racing has always proven.
The 2012 Baja 1000 runs from Ensenada to La Paz, and takes place from November 14-17.
+++++++++++
Follow GreenCarReports on Facebook and Twitter.

View original article at : “https://www.greencarreports.com//news/1078192_baja-1000-goes-electric-with-new-solar-powered-category”