Nobody is pitching the idea that Evonik Industries’ experimental car, Wind Explorer, is about to become the choice of soccer moms or NASCAR leadfoots, but the global company is proud of what the vehicle did.
The battery-powered car took a pilot and co-pilot 3,000 miles across the southern coast of Australia using less than $15 worth of electricity.
Today and Sunday, the car is at the Science Museum of Virginia to be marveled at. This is one stop on a national tour of stops near Evonik plants, one of which is in Hopewell.
Evonik, a specialty chemical company based in Essen, Germany, has a presence in more than 100 countries and a workforce of about 33,000. That includes about 235 employees, 135 of them in research and development roles, at its Evonik Goldschmidt Corp. facility in Hopewell. According to the company, the plant’s annual payroll tops $20 million.
The plant makes chemicals used in hair and skin care products, hard surface cleaners, polyurethane foam stabilizers and other products that are part of everyday life. For example, if your sunscreen applies smoothly, chances are it’s because it contains an additive from the Hopewell plant.
Evonik Industries developed the Wind Explorer to test the limits of efficiency.
Reinhold Brand, the Hopewell plant’s president, was on hand Friday at the Science Museum with William Bunting, a senior scientist, to explain how the car worked and, when given the opportunity, to boast about the project’s success.
“It’s a symbol of how our company operates,” Brand said.
Bunting said the technologies developed for the car — lightweight materials and batteries recharged by sustainable power — may be adapted in the auto industry in the future, but “there’s no intent to make this car a commercial venture.”
The open-cockpit car weighs only about 500 pounds. It is 5-feet wide at its widest point, only about 3-feet wide at the back. The bicycle-size tires were treated with an Evonik product that reduces rolling resistance. Top speed was about 49 mph.
Wind Explorer lived up to its name, depending on wind in two ways. When the wind was behind the car, the passenger deployed a wind-catching kite to help pull the car along.
When the car was done with a day’s run, the two men on the cross-continent trek assembled a wind turbine that generated the power to recharge the batteries overnight.
Oddly, with all the high-tech materials in use, the wind turbine was mounted on a bamboo mast about 4 inches in diameter. The car carried the bamboo in two pieces hanging out the back, where it looked like an enormous dual exhaust.
The trip took 18 days, chronicled in a video that is part of the exhibit. The video captures the jubilation of Dirk Gion and Stafan Simmerer, who shared the driving and kite-deploying duties.
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