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From kangaroos to sudden explosions, this team is ready to face it all! | BP2B: Student Edition! Ep3

Join us on Best Place to Build – Student Edition as we take a tour of what Team Agnirath has been up to, in IIT Madras. It’s IITM's very own student-led solar racing team. That too, the only Indian team to compete in the World Solar Challenge 2025. In this exclusive tour, Vidhi meets two of the team leads behind India’s most advanced student-built solar race car, designed to travel 3022 km across the Australian Outback, powered entirely by sunlight. ------ What’s inside this episode • The real conditions of the World Solar Challenge: 50°C heat, 70 km/h crosswinds, hailstorms, road trains, and desert wildlife • How IIT Madras students engineered a 6-meter solar car using ultra-light carbon fiber and 25% efficiency solar cells • Why the team chose a boat-shaped aerodynamic profile to drastically reduce drag • A deep dive into the solar tech: MPPTs, regenerative braking, battery cooling, ETFE-based high-efficiency panels • How the team manages 5 days of endurance racing: camping routines, convoy strategy, observers, and on-road repairs • The engineering setbacks that pushed them into the Adventure Class: battery cell failures, overheating MPPTs, and rain-related challenges • Their upcoming goals: Sasol Solar Challenge 2026 and aiming for a global podium finish • Industry support from Tata Power, Ashok Leyland, Prabha Auto, Bridgestone, and more ------ Why this episode matters: This story goes beyond racing. It showcases the future of sustainable mobility, high-efficiency solar vehicles, and student-driven engineering innovation from India. Whether you're curious about solar cars, EV technology, extreme engineering competitions, or the science behind ultralight automotive design, this episode offers rare insights from inside the workshop. Featuring Agnirath Solar Car Team – IIT Madras (Check out: https://www.agnirath.in/) Team members: Sairam (Business Head), Pratyush (Former Vehicle Dynamics Lead & Team Head) ------- 00:00 – Intro 00:24 – Welcome to the Best Place to Build: Student Edition 01:40 – Introduction to Team Agnirath IITM 02:55 – The 3022 km World Solar Challenge explained 04:20 – Why do solar cars look like boats? 06:10 – Solar panels, MPPTs & power management 08:22 – Battery cooling, carbon fibre & structural design 10:45 – The 2023 race: failures, fixes & moving to Adventure Class 13:02 – Life on/off the track: heat, wind, wildlife & road trains 15:10 – Team logistics: convoys, observers & daily strategy 17:15 – Industry partnerships & technology collaborations 23:40 – What’s next for Agnirath? Relevant keywords: solar car india, iit madras solar car, agnirath iitm, world solar challenge india, solar vehicle engineering, mppt solar racing, ev battery cooling, aerodynamic solar car design, student engineering teams india, sasol solar challenge, high-efficiency solar cells

SairamguestVidhihostPratyushguest
Dec 4, 202525mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

IIT Madras Team Agnirath races solar car across Australia’s extremes

  1. Team Agnirath (IIT Madras) builds ultra-efficient solar race cars and represented India at the World Solar Challenge in 2023 and 2025.
  2. The World Solar Challenge is a 3,022 km, five-day cross-Australia endurance race where solar is the primary energy source and rules tightly restrict external charging and on-road modifications.
  3. The car’s “boat/monocoque” shape and lightweight carbon-fibre construction prioritize aerodynamic drag reduction and low rolling resistance to maximize energy efficiency.
  4. Key technical systems include high-efficiency ETFE-encapsulated solar panels, MPPT-based power management, and mostly passive battery cooling using airflow under the car.
  5. The 2023 campaign featured real-world failures (overheating MPPTs, degraded battery cells, suspension rod-end issues) that forced a shift into Adventure Class and informed a more test-heavy roadmap toward Sasol Solar Challenge 2026 and eventually Cruiser Class.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

In solar racing, efficiency beats speed—every watt and every drag source matters.

The team frames performance around energy auditing: improving input (solar efficiency, MPPT conversion) while reducing losses (aero drag, rolling resistance, unnecessary auxiliary loads).

Boat-shaped (monocoque/monohull) bodies are a deliberate aerodynamic tradeoff, not aesthetics.

Teams converge on a few proven shapes because minimizing drag is central to finishing long stages on limited solar and battery energy under harsh crosswinds.

Thermal control is a safety system, not just a performance feature.

With desert temperatures and limited use of power-hungry cooling, overheating can cascade into catastrophic battery events; Agnirath emphasizes passive cooling via underbody airflow with fans as backup.

MPPT reliability can decide a race even if the solar cells are excellent.

They experienced MPPT overheating that reduced harvested power, illustrating that power electronics packaging, heat sinking, and derating strategies are as critical as panel efficiency.

Battery health and matching are make-or-break for endurance stages.

A few aged cells reduced effective capacity and forced an early competitive withdrawal; the lesson is rigorous cell screening, pack balancing strategy, and conservative operating windows.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Which means you have to travel from north part of Australia to southern part of Australia, which is around 3,022 kilometers, in just a span of five days.

— Sairam

The temperature sometimes goes around 50, 60 degree Celsius… and… 70 kilometers of crosswinds.

— Sairam

We have multiple incidents… where the entire battery got exploded, and their car… burned to ashes.

— Sairam

It’s a public highway… we have road trains… with speed of 100 and 120 kilometers.

— Pratyush

Around 250-kilometer mark… suddenly there was a drop in energy… a few cells had died.

— Pratyush

World Solar Challenge format, rules, and classesExtreme operating conditions: heat, wind, rain, hail, wildlife, road trainsAerodynamics: boat/monocoque vs catamaran shapesSolar array constraints, cell efficiency, ETFE encapsulationMPPTs, BMS, and power/energy auditingLightweighting, rolling resistance, specialized tiresThermal management: passive airflow battery coolingRace logistics: convoy structure, checkpoints, observers, campsitesTesting approach: prototype to limited track testingIndustry sponsorships and technical mentorshipPost-race iteration: Adventure Class learnings, Sasol 2026, future Cruiser Class

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