Endesa sponsors the first autonomous vehicle in Andalusia, developed by ARUS Andalucía Racing Team

Endesa and ARUS (Andalucía Racing Team) have signed this morning the renewal of the sponsorship agreement with the University of Seville's racing team, which faces one of its biggest challenges this season: competing for the first time in Formula Student with an autonomous vehicle created and developed by the University's own students.

Miguel Ángel Castro Arroyo, rector of the University of Seville, Rafael Sánchez Durán, general director of Endesa in Andalusia, Extremadura, Ceuta and Melilla, Andrés Sáez Pérez, director of the Higher Technical School of Engineering of the University of Seville, Jesús Muñuzuri Sanz, managing director of the Association of Research and Industrial Cooperation of Andalusia, AICIA, and Pedro García Macías, team manager of ARUS Andalucía Racing Team, have been in charge of ratifying this sponsorship. 

“In 2018, Endesa decided to support ARUS Andalucía Racing Team in developing the first electric single-seater race car, as part of our commitment to sustainable mobility. Six years later, we continue to support the talent of young university students from the University of Seville who are now taking another step forward by developing this first autonomous single-seater prototype in Andalusia. This milestone demonstrates the importance of public-private collaboration in achieving a sustainable future,” said Rafael Sánchez Durán during the signing ceremony.

In this regard, Andrés Sáez Pérez, director of the Higher Technical School of Engineering at the University of Seville, has emphasized that “the collaboration with Endesa is very important for Arus Team, since it has to solve real problems with limited budgets and with the challenge of designing an elite product while renewing its team every two years.”. 

“ARUS Team is going to transform your lives, it will allow you to achieve very important goals and that is what I value most,” said Miguel Ángel Castro Arroyo, rector of the University of Seville, addressing the students present at the event.

The signed agreement will allow the development of the first autonomous vehicle in Andalusia, which will also compete in Formula Student, the most important international competition on engineering of this type, thus representing a milestone for the developers of this single-seater who have been working on the design of the vehicle since last year.

This is another step in Endesa's commitment to sustainable mobility as a key tool for moving towards a zero-emissions energy model, combating climate change, and electrifying transport in Spain. "Our goal is to expand the electric vehicle charging infrastructure and develop advanced charging technologies and flexible solutions to improve the customer experience," the company stated.

Boost to a major project

Endesa's collaboration with the University of Seville's racing team, ARUS Andalucía Racing Team, began in 2018, when the team took the leap into developing an electric single-seater, the ART-18E. The energy company became one of the project's main drivers, providing cells and other battery-related components that significantly accelerated the transition to electric vehicles. In the 2019 season, Endesa continued as one of ARUS's main sponsors, also organizing a networking event with other team sponsors and some companies that, while not initially sponsors, discovered the project's potential at this event and decided to support it. 

Since then, Endesa has maintained its partnership with ARUS, enabling the development of new vehicle prototypes, such as the one the University of Seville team brought to Endesa's headquarters. This car competed in the 2023 Formula Student competition and placed among the top 15 in events like the one in the Netherlands, where the team also took second place in the Business Plan competition.

ARUS Andalucía Racing Team's trajectory

The team was founded in 2012 at the Higher Technical School of Engineering of the University of Seville (ETSI), by a group of engineering students interested in the automotive world. In 2014, ARUS Andalucía Racing Team competed for the first time with its first combustion engine car. Until 2018, a new single-seater was designed and manufactured every year, and that same year they also presented an electric vehicle for the first time. This made them the first and only Spanish team to compete in Formula Student in two categories simultaneously. 

In 2022 the team achieved two historic milestones: a third place worldwide in Italy and consolidating itself as the best team in the Business Plan test with two first places in the electric and combustion categories, something that no other team has achieved.

In 2023, ARUS took another leap forward, leaving the combustion engine category and embarking on a major three-year innovation and technology project: participating in the Driverless category, developing a carbon fiber monocoque chassis, and incorporating 4-Wheel Drive technology (one motor in each wheel). The team is currently focused on this project. For the 2023/24 season, ARUS Andalucía Racing Team will present the first fully autonomous vehicle developed in Andalusia, and progress on the other two innovation improvements is growing daily.

About Endesa

Endesa is a leading electricity company in Spain and the second largest in Portugal. It is also the second largest gas operator in the Spanish market. It operates an integrated business encompassing electricity generation, distribution, and retail. Through Endesa X, it also offers value-added services focused on the electrification of energy use in homes, businesses, industries, and public administrations, including electric mobility, where it is one of the leading charging point operators in Spain. Endesa is firmly committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, as such, is actively promoting the development of renewable energy through Enel Green Power España, the digitalization of the grid through e-distribution, and corporate social responsibility. In this last area, it also operates through the Endesa Foundation. The company has approximately 9,260 employees. Endesa is part of Enel, the largest electricity group in Europe.