UMich Solar Car Team completes 2,800-mile Solar Trek

The University of Michigan Solar Car Team completed its 2026 Solar Trek Sunday, wrapping up a 2,800-mile cross-country journey from Troy, Mich., to Los Angeles that kicked off on May 12 in a solar-powered vehicle they designed and built themselves. During the trek, the team made stops at sponsor headquarters, solar car team workspaces, a science center and a high school to engage with their community.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Engineering rising senior Julia Glasco, team manager of the Solar Car Team, said the team’s main competition is the World Solar Challenge in Australia, which takes place every other year. The team has also previously competed in cross-country solar events including the American Solar Challenge. Glasco said the team created the Solar Trek as a way to stay active and continue testing the car during off years.

“In our off years, we have to find something to do,” Glasco said. “We’ve done various things in the past. We really want to prepare our team for next year for the 2027 World Solar Challenge. It’s a really great way to prepare the next race crew, especially some of those younger members, to get that experience, dealing with the car and handling different issues.”

Engineering rising sophomore Lucy Paliani, communications director of the Solar Car Team, told The Daily planning the stops along the journey was one of the most demanding aspects of the trip.

“I think the biggest challenge I had in terms of the Solar Trek was definitely the event planning portion of it and keeping it in contact with our sponsors and the places that we wanted to stop,” Paliani said. “I had to explain our mission, what we wanted to do and why we wanted to stop there. A lot of the places that we wanted to stop at, we were really excited to stop at those places and we wanted to make sure that they were excited for us to come as well.”

In an interview with The Daily, Engineering rising senior Thomas Kennedy, crew chief of the Solar Car Team, said the team started preparing for the Solar Trek in late January, when the team got its car back from the 2025 World Solar Challenge in Australia.

“We did a lot of development work all throughout the school year,” Kennedy said. “We got the car back from Australia in January, and then we spent the first half updating the systems and fixing anything that we knew we had issues with. We then installed those on the car and then had our race crew … doing different drive days out at Eaton Proving Grounds.”

Kennedy said the team conducted simulations to ensure the car could safely handle America’s significant elevation changes, which differs from the World Solar Challenge’s flat terrain.

“In America, there’s a lot more traffic that we have to deal with, there (are) a lot more hills that we have to deal with and we’re going on a much longer event,” Kennedy said. “We’ve had to deal with 6% grades uphill and downhill. We’ve had to deal with all the traffic and crazy drivers that we see in America. In preparation for that, we practiced our on-road caravan procedures a lot making sure we could drive safely.”

Every aspect of the Solar Trek was planned by the students. According to Kennedy, the team designed the route to follow back roads and general state routes while also accounting for weather conditions, technical limitations and stops at sponsor locations along the way.

“This is a race that wasn’t organized by anyone other than the team,” Kennedy said. “We had to do all of the route survey things to decide our route. We had to pick how to simulate how far our car could go, reasonably, in different weather conditions, decide our beginning-of-day and end-of-day locations, and choose all the sponsor locations and places we wanted to visit to make sure we could meet all of those locations on time.”

Glasco said the team relied on a tightly coordinated caravan for safety, led by a vehicle that watched for hazards and directed the route.

“Then we have the solar car and then right behind, we have our chase vehicle, protecting (the solar car),” Glasco said. “Then we have our scout vehicle. They’ll usually leave 15 minutes ahead of wherever we are and be able to scout ahead if there’s a road closure and we don’t know.”

The team also has a media car that can take photos and videos, and a trailer that carries the solar car back to Michigan after the trek is over.

Glasco said she believes events — such as the 2026 Solar Trek — help increase awareness about the importance of sustainable energy, while also helping the team refine their car for larger competitions.

“Even in the time that we have been on the team, I’ve been (on) the team for three years, you can definitely see the improvements (and) changes we’ve made in our vehicles,” Glasco said. “Going to these events along the way — it’s definitely a step in the right direction for sure.”

Daily Staff Reporter Sarayu Bongale can be reached at sarayub@umich.edu.