Polytechnique Montreal students build solar car, win 2 U.S. races

It's been a good summer for a group of Polytechnique Montreal students.

Their newly built solar-powered car called Esteban 11 won two races in the US.

The team won the Formula Sun Gran Prix and the American Solar Challenge. They beat out other top notch engineering programs like MIT and Georgia Tech.

The car is a product of two-and-a-half years of hard work.

"As a team, we probably put in at least 100 hours a week," said Polytechnique student Laure Jalbert-Drouin.

The Esteban 11 is not the quietest ride, but it is likely the most efficient. It's a two-seater and has five square metres of solar panels. It also had a battery that can last up to 700 kilometres.

"As we drive, it charges. If we go to, like, 45 km/hour, 50 km/hour, and we have really good solar energy, we could drive infinitely," said student Marie Rouillard.

Esteban 11 is a prototype and can't be driven on the street, but the students see a bright future for solar-powered cars.

"The advantage would be that the sun is always there, you don't have to pay for it, and it's always available from wherever you are," Jalbert-Drouin said. "It does feel different than a regular car. For example, there is no power steering, so all the steering needs to be from your arm."

Developing the car was not a class project, and the students were not paid.

"We don't get credits for this at our school," Rouillard said. "It's really just people who want to see the car of the future being built."