CalSol’s 11th Generation Solar Vehicle | Fall 2026

We are a passionate team of students at UC Berkeley, and we build cars that run entirely off of solar power. Our team’s indomitable collaborative spirit fosters unparalleled knowledge sharing and growing. We challenge ourselves every day, building complex and uncharted engineering systems from the ground up. 

So far this year, we tirelessly prepared for the 2026 Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) and American Solar Challenge (ASC). Our truck and trailer crew drove over 1000 miles to Brainerd, Minnesota, to safely transport Excalibur, our tenth-generation solar vehicle, to its third-ever race.

CalSol faced a thorough scrutineering process to be granted access to the track, which we successfully accomplished second out of 44 teams total, resulting in a second-place starting position on the first day of FSGP. Our 35-person race crew successfully navigated logistical and engineering solutions in real-world situations, debugging electrical and mechanical subsystems of the car in order to pass scrutineering early. 

Excalibur and the team after passing scrutineering (2026)

Excalibur raced 205 laps (~630 miles) across the three days of competition at FSGP. We finished in 6th place out of 39 single-occupant vehicles, with our fastest lap coming in at 3:52! We gained lots of valuable experience and will be back better than ever next year! 

The second leg of the race, ASC, took us from Minneapolis, MN to Amarillo, TX in a grueling 8 day cross-country journey through 8 separate states. Excalibur completed 1100+ miles on real roads entirely on solar power, including historical Route 66 and the Old River Road. Once again, this unforgettable experience gave our race crew tons of experience working through real-world engineering problems! 

We share our work and make a positive impact on our community and the world. We are passionate about building the future of clean energy transportation. Through crowdfunding, we will utilize the funds to support our team in manufacturing our eleventh-generation solar vehicle, as well as to help fund our participation in next year's Formula Sun Grand Prix and American Solar Challenge. Whether or not we fall short of our goal or surpass it, all money raised will contribute to our car's development; our goal of $15,000 represents only a fraction of the total cost of vehicle production. 

Our race crew at the 2026 ASC finish line!

We need $15,000 to complete our car. Here is a breakdown of where those funds will go:

Administrative: $3000

• Maintaining the car comes with a lot of administrative fees: insurance, software fees, and race expenses. The more money we can allocate, the more accessible we can make race, decreasing member fees and giving the team more financial freedom.

Battery: $3000

• Our battery team is designing and manufacturing a 288 cell lithium-ion battery for our 11th generation car. Funds will allow us to test more modules, purchase higher energy density cells, and optimize pack design.

Chassis: $1500

• The roll cage is perhaps the most important safety and structural feature of our car. Our chassis team is currently focused on roll cage material testing and the mounting mechanism. Funds would go towards buying tubes for weld testing as well as bolts, metal inserts, and steel plates to test and optimize mounting designs.

Dynamics: $4000

• Dynamics is in its main machining and integration period this fall, where we’ll use steel and aluminum to machine our custom-designed parts including brakes, suspension systems, steering, and wheels. We’ll also make off-shelf purchases in fasteners, springs, and other specific items to maximize efficiency and fit.

Electrical: $1000

• Each board in our car is custom-made by our electrical team. We design and solder the boards inhouse, purchasing PCBs, connectors, wires, ICs, and other Bring-Up components.

Marketing: $1500

• Our marketing team and Andrew H, our senior photographer, are working together to make a documentary following the manufacturing of Gen XI. All equipment purchased for this project will be donated back to the team!

Solar: $1000

• This past year, our solar team purchased 466 custom-made solar cells that are optimized for efficiency and sustainability. Now, we’re focused on integrating the solar array, connecting it to our lithium-ion battery and electrical system.

Exact expenditures may vary depending on manufacturing timeline. If we exceed our goal, any additional funds will go towards lowering race fees and bringing more members to race. If we do not reach our goal, all funds will still go towards covering any Gen XI engineering and manufacturing costs.

CalSol members manufacturing the Gen XI bottom shell

CalSol is grateful for every donor and sponsor. Without you, CalSol wouldn't be possible.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Amelia Si (email amelia.si@berkeley.edu). We’d be happy to explain more about our mission and project and look forward to hearing from you.