Wind Explorer car drives 3,000 miles

February 16, 2011

German adventurers, Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer, this week completed a gruelling 18-day, 3,000-mile drive across Australia using a wind-powered car.

The Wind Explorer was powered by an electric motor, which was able to recharge its battery overnight using a portable wind turbine, and when conditions allowed, a traction kite similar to those used by kite surfers.

Wind Power
Wind Explorer electric car under sail power.
The carbon-fibre Greenbird land yacht: world’s fastest wind-powered vehicleBritish engineer, Richard Jenkins two years ago reached a speed of 126.1mph in a carbon-fibre land yacht.
Trans-continental record attempts aside, kite power is not a practical option for cars, but it is being used with impressive results by cargo ship MV Beluga. A company called SkySails is developing a range of giant kites for use by modern, conventionally-powered freighters. SkySail kites, which can be as large as 320m2 are claimed to reduce a ship‘s fuel costs by 10- 35% on annual average, depending on wind conditions. MV Beluga saves an average of 50 tonnes of fuel each day when the sail is in use.

Information correct at time of publication.

Leave us a comment

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Comments

Name

2 days ago

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Name

2 days ago

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Get more content like this, exclusive discounts, and weekly giveaways - straight to your inbox

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

March 20, 2025

March 20, 2025

March 19, 2025

March 18, 2025

March 17, 2025

March 13, 2025

Wind Explorer car drives 3,000 miles

February 16, 2011

Leave us a comment