Bridgestone Corporation is celebrating a decade as the title partner of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC) by naming the largest cohort of Bridgestone-supported teams in the event’s history for the October 22-29 Australia north to south crossing.
In the year of its 60th anniversary of Bridgestone Motorsport activity, the official event launch of the 2023 BWSC in Adelaide sees 35 out of 43 teams take on the 3000km journey from Darwin to Adelaide on Bridgestone tyres.
This year also includes ”Enliten” technology in Bridgestone’s BWSC tyre for the first time and using it in a competitive platform, merging motorsport and sustainability.
The BWSC showcases Bridgestone’s corporate commitment of “Energy: Committed to the realisation of a carbon neutral mobility society” and “Emotion: Committed to inspiring excitement and spreading joy to the world of mobility” described in the “Bridgestone E8 Commitment”.
“Bridgestone remains committed to the BWSC as a demonstration of its transformation towards a sustainable solutions company through the development of new tyre technology and by showcasing the values of the Bridgestone E8 Commitment,” says Bridgestone Corporation global marketing strategy executive director Tomoyuki Takagi.
“We are delighted to see the return of this incredible event and are excited to continue expanding our involvement in the BWSC through supporting participating teams.”
The return of the BWSC in 2023 marks the first event since Bridgestone’s decade-long title partnership extension was announced in 2019.
The event provides Bridgestone with a real-world research and development platform in some of the harshest conditions in the world to test new applications of the tyre equipped with “Enliten” technology.
“As the automotive industry continues to become electrified, the BWSC allows us to showcase our technology and developments to the world,” Takagi explains.
The BWSC is just one of Bridgestone’s global partnerships within its sustainable global motorsport pillar, joining the Bridgestone Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) ecoRally Cup, an international competition for road production vehicles with an electric drivetrain.
The BWSC has been running since 1987 with the purpose of contributing to the development of solar cars.
Participants are challenged to design, build and develop the world’s most efficient vehicles.
The 2023 event will be the 16th edition of the challenge which includes a “Challenger Class” for speedy vehicles with three or four wheels and one driver, a “Cruiser Class” testing four-wheeled vehicles’ energy efficiency and practicality with one driver and more than one passenger, and an “Adventure Class” open to vehicles that don’t meet the other class and must have more than three wheels.
