The Tokai Challenger is a solar race car that has been equipped with state-of-the-art Sharp solar cells. Surprisingly, for such a quirky idea, the solar race car actually works, and to prove it, its inventors have entered it into the South African Solar Challenge 2010.

The Challenger is the brain-child of a team at the Tokai University, and it is a remarkable achievement when you consider the finances needed to achieve such impressive results.

The race is to show a variety of solar-powered cars and involves a 4,087-km loop in the Republic of South Africa. If successful, the teams will no doubt hope to one day put their cars into production and help the world become even ‘greener’.