Twaron Next para-aramid fibers power Brunel Solar Team’s victory
The Nuna 13 solar car’s 3,000-kilometer journey for the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge competed with car tires comprising Teijin Aramid’s bio-based fiber reinforcement.
Nuna 13. Source | Teijin Aramid
The has won the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, reaching Adelaide first after a 3,000-kilometer journey from Darwin. The team, made up of 18 students from Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), secured its eighth victory in the event. The car ran on Bridgestone solar car tires with its Enliten technology, which included belt reinforcement made with Twaron Next supplied by Teijin Aramid (Arnehm, Netherlands). This result highlights the strength of Dutch engineering and the role of advanced materials in enabling next-generation mobility.
“Our role is to provide materials that enable ideas to come to life, even in demanding conditions,” says Hendrik de Zeeuw, chief commercial officer, Teijin Aramid. “This challenge shows what can happen when we back the next generation of engineers with sustainable, high-performance solutions.”
The team’s winning vehicle, Nuna 13, was built with one purpose: efficiency. It weighs just 160 kilograms and runs on a custom-designed, ironless in-wheel motor that achieves 98% operational efficiency. Its asymmetric catamaran shape, developed through 6 months of aerodynamic modeling, was validated through full-scale wind tunnel testing.
“You don’t get a second chance out there,” notes Thijmen God, technical manager, Brunel Solar Team. “The car has to behave exactly as expected, and that only works if the systems are built to work together from the start.”
The design features two vertical fins that help convert side winds into forward motion, improving both speed and stability. The Bridgestone solar car tires with its Enliten technology were reinforced with Teijin Aramid’s product, Twaron Next. Twaron was also used in the vehicle’s protective driver shield. This version of Twaron contains circular content and has contributed to enhancing the tire’s performance and environmental profile. Nuna 13 marks the first industrial-scale use of this material in a real-world application.
Teijin Aramid’s support of the Brunel Solar Team is part of its broader brand platform, Materializing Ambitions, which highlights real-world stories of engineering transformation across industries and geographies. As part of this initiative, Teijin Aramid has released a three-part documentary series, “Building Nuna,” capturing the Brunel team’s journey from classroom theory to high-performance competition. The full series is .
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