When AFEKA Racing lines up on the starting grid in Belgium this September, the team’s solar-powered car will carry more than batteries and photovoltaic panels.
A Magen David will be emblazoned on the vehicle, alongside the racing number 18, symbolizing chai (“life”). For the engineering students behind the project, the markings are a deliberate statement that they are proud to compete openly as Israelis.
“We see ourselves as an Israeli team representing Israel,” Dan Herman, head of Tel Aviv’s Afeka College of Engineering’s Vehicle Systems Track and the team’s mechanical mentor, told JNS in an interview.
“We consider ourselves a kind of ambassadors, presenting Israel’s face. We won’t hide our Jewish and Israeli side.”
The students know they are entering an international competition at a time of heightened tensions surrounding Israel. But they also hope to demonstrate something often lost in the headlines—Israeli innovation, teamwork and engineering.
AFEKA Racing will become the first Israeli team to compete in the iLumen European Solar Challenge, the world’s only 24-hour solar-powered endurance race, held this year at Belgium’s Circuit Zolder.
“We want to get to Belgium, raise the Israeli flag and prove that even a small team can compete against the best in the world,” the team said.
The challenge extends far beyond building a functioning solar-powered vehicle. The students are taking on university teams that have competed for decades and are backed by some of the world’s largest automotive companies.
Building the team
Three years ago, there was no team, no race car, and no experience in international solar racing.
“First, we needed to build a team,” Herman said. The group’s first vehicle, nicknamed Or-Na1 (“Moving Light”), was never intended to compete. Built in just nine months, it served as a learning platform that proved the students could design and assemble a working solar-powered vehicle.
“It didn’t comply with the race regulations,” Herman said. “But it shaped the team and brought us together. It made us realize we could do this.”
Realizing they needed firsthand experience, Afeka sent Herman and five students to Belgium in 2024 to observe the race.
“It was probably the most important thing we did,” he said. “We needed to understand what we were doing and what the other teams were doing.”
The visit transformed the project back home. The students returned energized, drawing new recruits who, as Herman put it, “caught the bug.” The trip also demonstrated the college’s commitment to the project.
“When a college sends five students abroad, it means it is taking the program seriously,” Herman said.
Today, the team numbers around 25 active students, most of them in their third year. Others are second-year students, graduates and even a master’s student. Some alumni have stayed on as mentors or team members, unwilling to walk away from the project simply because they have completed their degrees.
Afeka is the only academic institution in Israel offering an automotive specialization as part of its undergraduate mechanical engineering program. The solar vehicle brings together students from mechanical, industrial, electrical and software engineering.
“The work itself is done by the students,” team member Guy Hevlin told JNS.
Experienced mentors guide the mechanical, electrical and software teams, but the students design the systems, source components, work with suppliers, and build the vehicle.
Their campus workshop has become something of a second home, where they design, fabricate, study, hold meetings and often stay late into the night. “It takes a lot of time, but we do it with great pleasure,” said Hevlin. We’re really committed.”
Racing the weather
The car now under construction meets the competition’s regulations. Herman is clear, however, that this is only the first hurdle.
“We have no option. It has to meet the requirements,” he said. “The question is—Is it reliable, fast and energy-efficient enough to be competitive?”
At its core, the iLumen European Solar Challenge is an energy-efficiency contest. Teams compete for 24 hours with strictly controlled energy resources, and the car that covers the greatest distance wins.
“Everyone has the same limitations,” Herman explained. “We have a level playing field.”
It is here that the Israeli newcomers believe they may have found an opening.
Solar racing teams often design cars with Australia’s Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in mind, a grueling competition that takes vehicles more than 3,000 kilometers across the Australian continent, from Darwin to Adelaide. Under the design parameters the Afeka team studied, the cars can carry up to four square meters of solar panels, a factor that heavily influences their size and shape.
Belgium presents a different problem.
“We calculated and reached the conclusion that the sun in Belgium is not giving us enough,” Herman said.
Rather than build a larger car around an expansive solar array, the Afeka team has designed a smaller, more aerodynamic vehicle with less roof space and a smaller panel area. Their calculation is that, under Belgian conditions, overall efficiency may matter more than maximizing the surface available for solar panels.
“The fact that there is so little sun in Belgium makes us believe we may have an advantage,” Herman said. Whether that calculation pays off will only become clear on the track.
Herman is realistic about the competition.“We hope to be the best of the rest,” he said. “There are very strong teams that are well-funded by the worldwide automotive industry. They’ve been running for 30 or 40 years in competitions. They have a big advantage and so much know-how that we don’t have.”
But when the Afeka delegation visited the race in 2024, they also studied the teams in the middle of the field.
“We saw those teams, and we believe we can compete fairly against them,” Herman said optimistically.
Competing as Israelis
Around 20 students and staff are expected to travel to Belgium, although exactly how many ultimately make the trip will depend on funding. The college is covering part of the cost, while students will contribute toward their own travel.
The team has also received industry support, with Champion Motors among its largest sponsors and other companies donating hardware and components.
Beyond the technical and financial challenges, the students are conscious of arriving in Europe as an Israeli team.
Herman remembers the apprehension surrounding their 2024 visit, which took place just days after Israel’s pager operation against Hezbollah. In the unprecedented attack, thousands of pagers used by members of the Iran-backed terror group exploded across Lebanon, dramatically escalating regional tensions.
“We were worried,” he recalled. The reception at the closed racing circuit, however, surprised them.
“There were teams from all over Europe, and everyone was so friendly. We presented ourselves as a team from Tel Aviv, and everyone was welcoming. Very warm.”
Hevlin believes the shared engineering challenge can create common ground.
“Obviously, Israel isn’t very liked in the public scene right now,” he said. “But this competition is about the engineering challenge and not about political situations. We’re not coming to push an agenda. We’re coming to show what we can do.” On a personal level, he believes competitors will be “more accepting and less political.”
For Herman, the experience of working with the students over the past three years has also offered something increasingly difficult to quantify.
“Working with students exposes you to a lot of optimism,” he said. “You see good, young students with promising futures. It helps your perspective.”
Looking ahead
Belgium is not intended to be the finish line.
Afeka’s long-term goal is to establish a solar racing team that will continue for years and eventually compete in Australia’s prestigious Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.
The next Australian race will take place in 2027. Although Herman is not promising Afeka will be ready, he’s willing to say “never say never.”
Even if the team does not win in Belgium, Hevlin believes the experience and knowledge gained will put him and his fellow students in a far stronger position for their next competition. “It will be easier,” he suggested.
Herman immediately corrected him. “It’s not going to be easier,” he said. “We’ll be in a much better position. But our challenges and our goals will be higher. We’ll be more experienced, and we’ll take on greater challenges.”
“I promise you not to make it easier for you.”
