Following the commitment on pursuing innovation, investigation and young talent, the Valencian company renews, for a third consecutive year, the sponsorship with the student team from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and takes one step further, becoming their main partner in the construction of the transportation of the future.

The Valencian company has signed a sponsorship agreement with the university team, Hyperloop UPV, which will participate in the third edition of the Hyperloop Pod Competition. The competition is arranged by SpaceX, American aerospace company, and has the goal of developing a revolutionary means of transportation of both passengers and cargo, completely powered by renewable energy, reaching speeds of up to 1100km/h. For instance, travelling from Madrid to Valencia with Hyperloop will only take 20 minutes.

The agreement includes training in diverse engineering grounds offered by ISTOBAL for some of the members in Hyperloop UPV, on the development of what is already known as the ‘fifth method of transportation’. The Valencian company, leader in car wash and car care solutions for the automotive industry, offers technological advice to the team, becoming a strategic partner in the construction of Valentia, the Spanish Hyperloop prototype.

‘To partner with a company such as ISTOBAL, which believed in Hyperloop UPV from the get go, is a very important impulse for the project. We are very happy in having ISTOBAL as our premium partner, we are excited and motivated to keep developing the future of transportation’ - says Fernando Galtier, Economics and Partner Manager at Hyperloop UPV.

Hyperloop UPV is again the only Spanish representative in the competition, which will take place in summer 2018 in Los Angeles, (California). The Spanish team has been selected as one of the final 20 teams, which will compete this summer, among more than 300 university Hyperloop projects, from around the world. Hyperloop UPV has participated in every edition since the start, obtaining prestigious acknowledgements.

The team will travel to Los Angeles to present their prototype which has been escalated to the size of one passenger and will participate in trying to achieve the maximum speed on a 1,5 km test track where almost all the air has been extracted from. SpaceX has constructed the Hyperloop test track in front of their headquarters.

A bet on university talent

With this new sponsorship agreement, ISTOBAL reasserts its commitment to young talent, as well as promoting the training, research and innovation generated by universities. The company has already signed agreements with the university, which follows these principles, such as the ISTOBAL Professorship, where both institutions share knowledge and resources.

Hyperloop UPV has achieved awards in both the ‘Best Hyperloop Conceptual Design’ and ‘Best Propulsion / Compression subsystem’ in the Hyperloop Pod Competition Design Weekend held in Texas (United States). Last August, the team made it to the TOP 10 best teams in the second Hyperloop Pod Competition, with their first prototype, Atlantic II.