Belgian Solar Team Unveils New Innovation as They Aim for Third World Title

2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge

11 augustus 2025

Monday 11 August 2025 – The Innoptus Solar Team, a group of 20 engineering students from KU Leuven, has revealed the second major innovation in their newest solar car, the Infinite Apollo. Their latest addition, called The Bounce, introduces an adaptive ride height system - a first in the history of Belgian solar cars. With the Infinite Apollo they aim to secure their third world title at the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a 3,000 km race across the Australian Outback starting on August 24th.

The Bounce

Powered by a hydraulic mechanism, the Bounce gives the Infinite Apollo an adaptive ride height system, allowing the car to adjust its chassis's height in real time based on speed and road conditions. This improves both stability and aerodynamics, two key factors in the 3,000 km Bridgestone World Solar Challenge across the Australian Outback.

“Driving through the Outback is never easy, especially with a larger solar panel and a reduced battery size, stability became an even higher priority. That’s exactly why we developed The Bounce, to help the car adapt to whatever the journey throws at us.”
^{Sam Dilmaghanian (24, Brussels), Electronics Engineer at the Innoptus Solar Team}

With a solar panel surface area increased to 6 m², maintaining a low and stable chassis helps to increase stability. The Bounce allows the car to lower itself for more stability during, for example, challenging wind conditions, and to raise the ride height when navigating rough and uneven terrain.

The system is carefully designed to react rapidly, ensuring the car can always drive over bumps and road irregularities, complying with the competition's regulations.

By controlling the car’s centre of gravity with precision, the Bounce gives the team greater handling, adaptability, and reliability throughout the race.

“The Bounce reflects a broader trend in the automotive industry, where adaptive ride height systems are increasingly used to help vehicles adapt in changing conditions. We’re applying that same principle to solar racing, and refining it to the extreme challenges of the Outback.”
^{Lander Deprez (21, Tienen),}^{Mechanical Engineer at the Innoptus Solar Team}

The Double Fin

Earlier this year, the team introduced another major innovation: the Double Fin. Replacing the single rotating fin used on the previous car, this new system features two fixed asymmetric fins, each designed to capture wind from one specific side.

Wind during the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is highly unpredictable, constantly shifting in both direction and strength throughout the day. Calculating the perfect angle for a rotating fin in such conditions is a major challenge. To solve this, the team moved away from rotation entirely. Instead, they equipped the car with two strategically shaped fins that can be selected depending on the wind direction.

Each fin has a unique wing profile that converts crosswind into forward thrust. Depending on the situation, the team activates the most effective fin to maintain optimal performance. They can even adjust the height of each fin individually, fine-tuning the car’s aerodynamic balance on the fly.

“With our double fin, we can better adapt to fluctuating wind directions and gain more advantages from it.”
^{Julie ter Hark (22, Brasschaat), Aerodynamics Engineer at the Innoptus Solar Team}

The Double Fin works in tandem with The Bounce to increase stability, giving the car greater control and consistency in challenging wind conditions.

21 years of innovation

The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is not just about racing solar cars, it’s about pushing the boundaries of technology. Every team on the start line brings its own innovations, testing new ideas and solutions in one of the most demanding engineering competitions in the world.

From advanced materials to bold aerodynamic concepts, innovation is at the heart of everything the Belgian team does. Drawing on decades of research and experience, each generation builds on the breakthroughs of its predecessors, refining proven concepts and daring to explore new ones. This has led to developments such as active wheel covers that cut air resistance, 3D-printed components now widely used in the industry, an in-house Battery Management System that extends lifespan by balancing cell discharge, and microstructures on the solar panel surface to capture more sunlight. Their custom electric motor achieves efficiency levels beyond most electric vehicles.

Some ideas have even become signature features. The aerodynamic fin, first introduced as a static element in 2022 and refined into a rotating version in 2023, has now evolved into this year’s double fin system. The latest step in a continuous engineering journey that shapes the future of sustainable mobility, and serves as a testbed for the industry.

Press Footage

Press footage via OneDrive link (interviews with Lander Deprez, Sam Dilmaghanian, and Julie ter Hark, footage of the solar car in motion, and videos of the Bounce and Double Fin).