Australia’s green car completes world tour in $400

SYDNEY - A two-seater renewable energy vehicle crossed the finish line of a global zero emissions race covering 16 countries and 30,000 km in 80 days in only $400.

The Google-sponsored car Team Trev arrived at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday night.

Initially designed by University of South Australia (UniSA) and driven by UniSA researchers, the three-wheeled electric machine was Australia’s only representative in the first zero emission global race for vehicles powered by renewable energy.

Team Trev developer Peter Pudney from UniSA’s School of Mathematics and Statistics says Trev’s achievement is a proof that green technology can achieve big things, according to an UniSA statement.

“We originally built Trev just because we wanted to show that it was possible to build a car that used clean energy and a lot less energy than a normal car,” Pudney said.

“Clean electricity for the around-the-world trip cost us about $400, so it’s really cheap to run as well as clean - it makes you wonder why we are still driving around in petrol cars because we’ve shown it is possible to do it differently,” he said.

However, Pudney said that we shouldn’t expect to see Trev on the production line anytime soon.