Texas High Schoolers Enter Solar Car Race in Australia

Ethan Kiowski doesn’t have his driver’s license yet. That's because he’s only 15. But that didn’t stop the Texas high schooler from taking part in a high-tech cross-country car race on the other side of the world. And the race won't require a drop of gas!  

The largely 3D-printed car he and his Greenville High School teammates designed is solar powered. And it's been deemed good enough to enter the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. Theirs is the only entry built by high schoolers to take part in this week’s grueling race across Australia. Most of the other 24 purely solar-powered cars were created by college students from around the world. 

Kiowski is the youngest driver to compete in the event. It's been held every other year since 1987. 

"It's just excitement and joy and it's really cool to see a project like that come together and go from the drawing board and the CAD to then the mold getting printed and then the body,” Ethan told CBS News, “and now it's here on the road, ready to go." 

Ethan and his competitors come from 17 countries. They started the race in Darwin on the northern coast on Sunday. By day, they race across rugged desert terrain and amid searing heat. By night, they camp along an Outback highway that will take them 3,022 kilometers (1,878 miles) to finish. The race ends Sunday in Adelaide on the southern coast.

The Greenville teens say they’ll be happy with a top ten finish. But teammate Kenleigh Myers said she's grateful to have just been a part of it.

She told CBS, "We're going to show that even as 15 and 16 year olds, like, we can build something just as great." 

Reflect: Think of something challenging you would love to work on. What steps would you take to make it happen?

Photo of the World Solar Challenge from Instagram courtesy of @worldsolarchallenge.