It’s called the World Solar Challenge, and a Dutch team has won for each of the past 2 races. I know it’s not exactly the near term future of the automotive industry, but I still get a kick out of it. Especially since we do a lot of work with Australian companies.

11 teams drive odd looking solar powered cars race across Australia (not exactly the whole world, but since they’ve been doing it for 20 years and have entrants from around the world, we’ll give them credit). Now, to be fair, it’s a race across Australia from North to South, not the longways. But it’s still 3,000 kilometers, 4 days for a solar powered car according to their website. And they camp in the outback on the way.

They left Sunday according to a Reuters article The Australian Solar Race, and you can track their progress on the WSC site, www.wsc.org.au.

I’m rooting for the University of Michigan Team. It’s one of three from the US this year (not counting the Puerto Rican team).

Check it out.