General News
28 November, 2025
First for Highview in pedal electric event
Highview College wins on first outing with pedal electric Energy Breakthrough entry.
For their debut appearance in the pedal electric challenge at this year’s Energy Breakthrough, Highview College took home the gold in the event’s hardest category.
Earlier this year, the school’s senior students announced they would be taking on the Energy Breakthrough’s most technically difficult circuit, the Energy Efficient Vehicles.
Following months of teamwork, dedication, preparation, problem solving and perseverance, team ‘Mission Efficiency’ raced their electric vehicle for the first time ever, and won with an overall score of 92.5/100 in the pedal electric open.
Highview teacher coordinating the team, Liam Belcher, said the trike was the result of months worth of planning, building and testing.
“The pedal electric class is like an extra technical element to the Energy Breakthrough,” he said.
“It adds an extra element onto the race, managing not only the human side of things but also how much power you’re using, how much energy per kilometre, and the mass of how to organise that, as well as all the other elements in a normal race.”
The team was also awarded first in display and presentation and third in design and construction.
The category encourages entrants to see how far their limited fuel allocations can carry them in the 24 hour endurance trial.
“You have got to make space for where the battery is going to go, where the motor is going to go, where you’re going to run your wires through, the size of the wheels. There are lots of different elements we have got to take into consideration,” Mr Belcher said.
“It’s a lot more complicated. It’s the next level up on the technical side of the Energy Breakthrough.”
Mr Belcher praised students for their challenge to taking on the new category, up against schools with years worth of experience in the category.
“The students were elated, they were over the moon. To go up against other schools that have years and years of experience, and for us to come through and do as well as we did in our first year was really awesome and the students were really proud of themselves,” he said.
“We are just really proud of how we went, especially finishing fourth overall, completing as many laps as we did was awesome and a real display of all of our preparation, hard work, and teamwork through the event.
“We would have been happy with however we went but going as well as we did was the icing on the cake. We are going go in next year and give it another crack.”