In the run up to this summer’s European Formula Student Competitions, the Formula Technion team just unveiled its car for the summer 2022 racing season. Amazingly, the Technion car runs on electricity. It also happens to drive itself.

The students, from across various Technion faculties at the Technion presented their new autonomous electric vehicle (A-EV) on June 22, 2022.

The Formula Technion project was established in 2012 as part of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The team has presented a wide variety of impressive and successful projects, and the new vehicle is their first autonomous vehicle.

Currently, the Formula Technion team includes students Itamar Ventura, Keren Grinberg, Sharon Goldstein, Muans Omari, Doron Shpigel, Dima Abu Romi, Ayham Abu Eid, Ahmad Rabi, Salman Abdalla, and Oriel Mizrahi.

Omari, the current leader of the team, commented “The car world of today is shifting to electric and autonomous vehicles, and the Formula Student competitions have embraced this trend. In the new car we have just unveiled, we expressed the tech revolution through a change of color, from red/black to blue, white, and light grey, colors that today stand for electric propulsion. Making the transition from an internal combustion engine to an electric propulsion system is far from easy and took a lot of work and learning. But we believe in our chances of achieving good results in the upcoming competitions, which will be taking place in Germany and Spain.”

The team competes annually in the European Formula Student competition, which is a vessel for new and exciting technological advances. Teams’ performances are evaluated based on a combination of engineering challenges through building the vehicles and driving skills measured on the track. The Technion team has been widely successful throughout their years of competing.

The goal of the project is for students to gain real-world, professional knowledge in their desired future field, such as engineering, planning, manufacturing, and more. The skills learned through the project help the students build a foundation for a successful career.

Last year, the first Israeli Formula Student Race was held due to pandemic-related travel restrictions. The participants included the Technion, Tel Aviv University, and Ben-Gurion University. The Technion team took first place in the competition.

The new vehicle’s unveiling comes just ahead of the 2022 motor racing season. The team is slated to participate in an August 29 – September 4 competition at Spain’s Circuit Parcmotor Castelloli.