80 Day Race selected as a founding member of the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions

80 Day Race has been selected as a founding member of the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, which has the ambition to globally advance the cause of clean technologies. The announcement was made on Tuesday during the COP23 in Bonn, Germany.

The World Alliance for Efficient Solutions was created at the initiative of the Solar Impulse Foundation, following the success of the first solar flight around the globe accomplished by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg. Its goal is to federate the main actors in the field of clean technologies in order to bring efficient solutions to the environmental and health challenges of the world. It benefits from the media, political and institutional relations developed over the course of the Solar Impulse project.

Piccard, who became an 80 Day Race ambassador in February, has personally selected the global race around the world as one of the Alliance’s members. The initiator, chairman and pilot of Solar Impulse and 80 Day Race share a similar philosophy, to show that the future can be clean and exciting.

In 80 Day Race, inspired by Jules Verne’s famous novel, teams will undertake a challenging adventure to compete against each other while circumnavigating the world in 40,000 km, solely with zero-emission vehicles. The race will start and finish in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and will visit other major cities like Astana, which is set to become a host city.

Frank Manders, co-founder and General Director at 80 Day Race, said: “We are honoured to be selected as a founding member of the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions. Solar Impulse showed that the impossible dream to fly around the world only on solar energy wasn’t impossible at all. For many people an adventure like Solar Impulse is not within reach, but being able to literally bring the zero-emission dream to the ground, in a land based race around the world is an extension of Bertrand Piccard’s message of hope. Through innovation and pushing boundaries we can create exciting adventures, while at the same time showing the future is clean and exciting.”