Three Cruiser-class winners (Stella Vie, Stella Lux, and the original Stella) from Solar Team Eindhoven (picture credit)
Warning: this list is obsolete. Please check more recent posts.
Here is yet another update on the 52 teams (27 Challengers, 24 Cruisers, and 1 Adventure car) aiming for the 2019 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia this coming October. Many teams are busy with construction, and below is my best understanding of the current team status. Meanwhile, 26 teams (Bridger, Calgary, CalSol, Esteban, Florida, Ga Tech, Illini, Illinois St, Kentucky, Mich St, Missouri S&T, NCSU, NJIT, Northwestern, Principia, PrISUm, Purdue, Rutgers, SIUE, UBC, UPRM, USC, UT, UVA, W Mich, and Waterloo), including 1 WSC team, are preparing to attend FSGP 2019 in America this July.
Several clickable social media links below have been corrected and some clickable YouTube and blog links have been added. I have also included some subjective traffic lights. The big news is that the Belgians are now called Agoria Solar Team (but fortunately their social media links aren’t changing), that Lodz Solar Team has produced a solar baby, and that Twente has revealed their design (a GaAs catamaran reminiscent of Nuna 9).
By special request, all links in this post (including the clickable social media icons) now open in a new tab or page, depending on your browser (I would welcome feedback on whether this is an improvement):
Adelaide University 
Challenger (Lumen II) – they have been doing a lot of testing.
ATN Solar Car Team 
Cruiser (new team: see my team bio) – they have manufactured several parts of the car interior. This seems to be the body shape.
Australian National University
Challenger (new car: MTAA Gnowee) – the car is named after a woman in Aboriginal myth who carries the sun.
public domain photo
Flinders University 
Cruiser (Investigator Mark III) – they are planning to improve aerodynamics, reduce weight, and make some other changes.
Swinburne Solar Team
Cruiser (new team) – this team may no longer be active.
TAFE SA
Cruiser (SAV) – existing car.
Team Arrow
Cruiser (ArrowSTF) – as well as racing, their commercial arm, Prohelion, is selling power packages.
University of New South Wales / Sunswift 
Cruiser (Violet) – they set a record for lowest energy consumption driving trans-Australia (Perth to Sydney).
Western Sydney Solar Team
Challenger (new car) – they won the American Solar Challenge last year.
Agoria Solar Team (KU Leuven)
Challenger (new car: BluePoint) – they have some (top secret) production moulds and are now sponsored by Agoria.
ETS Quebec (Eclipse)
Challenger (Éclipse X.I) – they came an excellent 3rd in the ASC, 102 minutes behind Western Sydney, and hope to go even faster with the new battery pack in their modified car.
University of Toronto (Blue Sky)
Challenger (new car: Viridian) – they plan to unveil the new car in July.
Antakari Solar Team
Challenger (new car: Intikallpa V) – no news on the new design as yet.
Eolian AutoSolar
Cruiser (new car: Auriga ) – they will be back at the WSC after coming 14th in 2007.
public domain photo
Bochum University of Applied Sciences
Cruiser (new car) – Bochum also has a solar buggy team.
Sonnenwagen Aachen
Challenger (new car) – they are getting started with mould manufacturing.
Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education
Cruiser (Sophie 6 plus) – they have been working on the car body.
R.V. College of Engineering
Challenger (new car) – no details as yet.
public domain photo
SolarMobil Manipal
Cruiser (SM-S2) – existing car.
Futuro Solare Onlus
Cruiser (new car: Archimede 2.0) – they have an exciting design concept.
Onda Solare
Cruiser (Emilia 4) – they won the American Solar Challenge (Cruiser class) last year, and they have written up their design process here.
Kogakuin University
Challenger (new car) – they have officially announced their participation.
Nagoya Institute of Technology
Challenger (new car) – no news on the new design as yet.
public domain photo
Tokai University
Challenger (new car) – in January they hosted some visitors from Lodz.
Kookmin University Solar Team
Challenger (new car) – no news on the new design as yet.
EcoPhoton / UiTM
Challenger (new car: Tigris) – no news on the new design as yet, but they already have a very professional media presence. Their fund-raising efforts include some great T-shirts.
Mines Rabat Solar Team
Challenger (new car: Eleadora 2) – their new catamaran will look like this.
Solar Team Eindhoven
Cruiser (new car: Stella ?) – they have a good team working on the car and, like many other teams, they plan using Post-it notes. They are turning a shipping container into an oven.
Solar Team Twente
Challenger (new car: Red E) – they are already producing regular vlogs, and have a vlog for February (Dutch only). They have revealed their design (a GaAs catamaran reminiscent of Nuna 9, at least at the front).
Top Dutch Solar Racing
Challenger (new team: see my team bio) – they have given their drivers a thorough physical, and made good progress on fabrication.
Vattenfall Solar Team (Delft)
Challenger (new car: Nuna X) – these are the champions formerly known as Nuon. See their name change announcement video.
Lodz Solar Team
Cruiser (Eagle Two) – they have produced a solar baby, which is a prize that lasts.
PUT Solar Dynamics
Cruiser (new team) – they are based in the home town of the famous Australian explorer Paweł Strzelecki.
Polytech Solar 
Cruiser (new car) – no news on the new design as yet.
public domain photo
Singapore Polytechnic
Cruiser (SunSPEC 5) – they have new motors and new doors.
Chalmers Solar Team
Challenger (new team: see my team bio) – their final render resembles the car of the South African NWU team. They have a chassis.
Halmstad University Solar Team
Challenger (new team: see my team bio) – they are planning a bullet car, much like Michigan’s 2017 entry.
JU Solar Team
Challenger (new car) – they have a rolling test chassis, but the body design seems long and thin.
MDH Solar Team
Challenger (new car) – some degree of autonomous driving is planned.
public domain photo
Solar Energy Racers
Challenger (SER-3) – they raced this car in South Africa.
Kaohsiung / Apollo
Cruiser (new car: Apollo IX) – they have been making some carbon-fibre seats.
Siam Technical College
Cruiser (new car: STC-3) – no news on the new design as yet.
Dokuz Eylül University (Solaris)
Challenger (new car) – they expect the new car to be 44% more efficient than the 2015 model.
public domain photo
Ardingly College
Cruiser – this high-school team came 6th in the iESC Cruiser class.
Cambridge University
Cruiser (new car: Helia) – they are busy with fabrication.
Durham University
Challenger (new car: Ortus) – they have begun fabrication.
Appalachian State University (Sunergy)
Cruiser (new team: see my team bio) – they competed in the American Solar Challenge last year, with their car ROSE.
Berkeley (CalSol)
Cruiser (new car: Tachyon) – they have a bottom shell and roll cage. They will also attend FSGP 2019.
Houston School District
Adventure (Sundancer) – this high school team from from Houston, Mississippi is a regular visitor, because they keep winning the US high school race.
Stanford Solar Car Project
Challenger (new car) – they have donated their 2015 car to the new Rutgers team, and have posted a lengthy status report on their blog.
University of Michigan
Challenger (new car) – they are asking for name suggestions for the new car.
University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project
Cruiser (new car: Freya) – no news on the new design as yet.
This page last updated 21:31 on 21 March 2019 AEDT
Scientific Gems 
Hi Tony, this is a very impressive list and the tangible progress suggests that most of them will indeed travel to the WSC. I think opening the links on another page is an improvement.
Thank you! Yes, I expect to see most of these teams in Australia.