An 11-day race solar car race kicked off in South Africa, but the results were not in favor of the home team.
The race was the first kind in the country as organizer Winstone Jordaan said it was mainly for educational purposes to get others involved in alternative technology, specifically solar energy.
Participants included three South African teams, two Indian teams, one Japanese team and a hydrogen-powered motorcycle form Malaysia. The Japanese engineering students from Tokai University took the winning honors, completing more than a 4,000-km route from Johannesburg to Cape Town, up again along the Garden route passing through Durban and Tshwane.
The solar cars relied on solar panels that converted sunlight into electricity that was stored in lithium batteries.
The next South African solar challenge will be held after the World Cup in 2010.