The University of Stuttgart's GreenTeam has secured the world champion title in Formula Student for electric vehicles. This is the team's second title win in a row, and the students are delighted that all the hours of hard work have paid off. "Except for just a few components, we developed and built the entire vehicle ourselves," explains Mathis Bachler, GreenTeam team leader. "2022 was the most successful Formula Student season that we have participated in since 2009." The students secured first place in four of the five races.
Formula Student is an international design competition for students. The team not only participates in the dynamic disciplines, where the performance of the vehicle is evaluated, they also compete in terms of "statics". The category Engineering Design involves a technical explanation, where the vehicle and the development steps must be accounted for to experts from Formula 1 and automotive companies such as Porsche, Mercedes and Rimac. The costs and business plan are evaluated to determine the teams' development capabilities and marketing skills. The vehicle's driving characteristics must be proved on the racetrack. The preparation phase for this is approximately one year.
"It is a really tough year for us. Many students apply for two semesters of leave and invest an entire year in the project," says Bachler. But it’s worth it. "Here we can have the opportunity to put the theoretical knowledge from our studies into practice. For example, we not only have to design components, but also manufacture and validate them. To do that, we have to find manufacturing partners from industry and coordinate production."
GreenTeam sets the world acceleration record
In 2022, the GreenTeam secured not only the world championship title but also the record for the fastest accelerating electric vehicle in the world. The group, comprising 20 students from the association Greenteam Uni Stuttgart e.V., achieved an acceleration speed of 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 1.461 seconds in the specially modified racing car. They were thus able to bring this record home to Stuttgart for the third time, beating the record held since 2016 by the team from ETH Zurich.
The GreenTeam is currently preparing for the 2023 season. Around 50 students from a range of different study programs, including mechanical engineering, vehicle and engine technology, aerospace engineering, but also from the fields of media business and finance are working together on the new racing car. And the team is looking for more motivated students who want to join. "Anyone who is interested is welcome to visit our workshop at Pfaffenwaldring 10/2 on the Vaihingen campus," says Bachler.