MOTHER Nature came to the party and embraced the first few days of the eight-day 2018 Sasol Solar Challenge.
She gave the futuristic cars the much-needed sunshine to kick the event off from Time Square in the city on Saturday.
Executive Mayor Solly Msimanga was there and waved the solar cars on to the road.
Msimanga said the event represented ingenuity, efficiency, hard work and cutting-edge technology.
“It is everything we need in the City of Tshwane and we’re proud to again host the start of the Sasol Solar Challenge.”
Spectators lined the streets and cheered the cars along as they passed through towns.
Five South African teams are taking on the teams in solar cars from Japan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Switzerland. They are trying to clock more than 4500km of solar-powered distance. The record held by Dutch team Nuon was set in 2016 at 4716km.
Japanese solar team Tokai unseated Nuon on the second day of the challenge, and in an equally big upset, the South African high school team of Sonke Siyakunde started ahead of all local universities yesterday.
And in a tale of pure determination, Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), in their Sunchaser 3, completed more than 100km after rebuilding their cockpit and solar array overnight, which placed them fifth on the start line on Sunday.
The 2018 event marks a decade of bi-annual solar car challenges, all hosted in South Africa, as it runs for the sixth time.
The challenge sees solar-powered cars from across the world compete to cover the biggest distance across public roads, from Pretoria to Sasolburg, through Bloemfontein to Gariep Dam, and on to Middelburg and Graaff-Reinet to end in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape.