This list of prototype solar-powered cars comprises multiperson, relatively practical

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...

s powered completely or significantly by

solar cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.

s ( panels or

arrays An array is a systematic arrangement of similar objects, usually in rows and columns. Things called an array include: {{TOC right Music * In twelve-tone and serial composition, the presentation of simultaneous twelve-tone sets such that the ...

, mounted on the vehicle) which convert

sunlight Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when t ...

into

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

to drive

electric motors An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate force ...

while the vehicle is in motion and have a homologation for public streets.

Australia

Sunswift V (eVe)

The Sunswift V (aka "

eVe Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...

") from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

was built for the 2013 & 2015

World Solar Challenge The World Solar Challenge (WSC), since 2013 named Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, is an international event for solar powered cars driving 3000 kilometres through the Australian outback. With the exception of a four-year gap between ...

Solar Spirit 3

The "Solar Spirit 3" with 3 seats was built by

TAFE South Australia TAFE South Australia (TAFE SA) provides vocational education and training in South Australia. The acronym TAFE stands for Technical and Further Education and is used and recognised nationally throughout Australia. TAFE SA is a Registered train ...

for the 2011

Brazil

e.coTech Solar version

The "e.coTech" is a normal electric car developed by "HiTech Electric" and is sold only to small and medium-sized businesses. In 2017, the solar version of "e.coTech" was announced and presented to the public in 2018.

Canada

Schulich Delta

The "Schulich Delta" from the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

was built for the 2013

China

Cars without name

The handicraft enthusiast "Chen Shungui" developed 2 prototypes between 2002 and 2010.

Germany

Hochschule Bochum: Open World

The solar vehicle was built in 2015 from the "Hochschule Bochum" to cross the desert of Tanami in Australia. Range with fully charged accumulator is 50 kilometers. The car have a solar roof with 160 Wp and in a box below the roof (not on the picture) 1943 Wp (!) solar panels for extension during driving breaks.

PowerCore SunCruiser

The "PowerCore SunCruiser" with 3 seats was built in 2013 by "Hochschule Bochum". Maximum Power created on his solar roof is 833 Wp. Car is equipped with 4 wheel hub electric engines. Participant on the

2013.

Sion

The Sion model from Sono Motors was presented to the public in July 2016. Two prototypes were financed by crowdfunding and were available for test drives in August 2017. The price will be EUR 16,000,- plus the battery you can rent or buy (

SolarWorld GT

The 2-seater "SolarWorld GT" was built 2011 by "Hochschule Bochum" with 2 wheel hub electric engines in the front wheels. After the participation at the 2011

, the car and his team did the first full autarky world circumnavigation (10/2011-12/2012). This record was admitted by

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

. On the roof of the car are 3 m² solar cells and in the trunk additional 3 m² which are used during driving breaks. Maximum power creation of all solar cells is 1340Wp. More technical data can be found here:.

ThyssenKrupp SunRiser

"The "PowerCore SunCruiser" with two seats was built by "Hochschule Bochum" for the 2015

. Maximum Power created on its 3 m² solar roof is 870 Wp. Car is equipped with 2 wheel hub electric engines and comfort electronics. Top speed is 120 km/h. Range with solar charging only is up to 600 kilometers per day. Range with fully charged accumulator (14,8 kWh) is up to 1100 kilometers.

India

SolarMobil

The team SolarMobil from the

Manipal University Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) is a private deemed university located in Manipal, India. The university also has campuses in Mangalore, Bangalore and Jamshedpur in India , and global campus in Dubai and Malacca (Malaysia). As of ...

built a prototype 2-seater solar passenger car called "SERVe" in 2015. Electro-X India Tea
Electro-X
of engineering students from

Galgotias University Galgotias University (GU) is a private university and the second Satellite campus, regional campus of Galgotias Educational Institutions located near Dankaur village in southern fringes of Greater Noida in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Utt ...

, developed a 2-seater solar powered Electric car.

Italy

P-Mob

With an EU - project led by Fiat (May 2010 - April 2013) a complete solar car with 3 seats was developed. This small car has four wheel drive. Range with solar charging only is 20 kilometers per day. Range with fully charged accumulator is 120 kilometers.

Archimede

Developed and built in Sicily b
Futuro Solare
Association.

Emilia 4

Developed and built in Emilia Romagna in 2018 by the University of Bologna, the Onda Solare Association and several industrial partners, Emilia 4 is a 4.6 meter long, 1.8 meter wide and 1.2 meter high 4 seats vehicle. It is equipped with a 5 square meter photovoltaic roof, made of 362 silicon cells, with a nominal power of 1200W. The car won the American Solar Challenge 2018 in the Multi-Occupant Vehicle (MOV) category.

Japan

Kaiton II

The "KAITON II" from the "Goko High School" was built for the 2013

OWL

"OWL" was built for the 2015

in the Cruiser class by

Kogakuin University is a private university in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Its predecessor was named "Koshu Gakko" (工手学校) and was one of the oldest private engineering schools in Japan. History Koshu Gakko (工手学校, lit. technicians school) was founded ...

Monaco

Venturi Astrolab

Venturi Automobiles Venturi is a Monaco-based automotive manufacturer. Founded in 1984 by French engineers Claude Poiraud and Gérard Godfroy as ''MVS (Manufacture de Voitures de Sport)'', the company's purpose was to compete in the " Grand Tourisme" market. This w ...

has built the open 2-seater "

Astrolab An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...

" since 2006. With solar charging only, its range is 18 kilometers per day. Its range with the accumulator fully charged is 110 kilometers. It has a top speed of 120 km/h.

Venturi Eclectic

designed the flanking seating, open-sided 3-seater "

Eclectic Eclectic may refer to: Music * ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014 * ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996 * Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act * Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...

" as a prototype in 2006. Its range with solar charging only is 7 kilometers per day. Fully charged, its accumulator gives a range of 50 kilometers. The car has a top speed 50 km/h. Its price was 'middle of the road' as announced, but serial production never started. There is also a small electric car with the name "Eclectic 2.0" from the same company.

The Netherlands

Lightyear One

The 5-seater solar car

Lightyear One The Lightyear 0 (formerly the Lightyear One) is an upcoming all-solar-electric car by Lightyear. Production was originally scheduled to start in 2021, with a starting price of incl. VAT (). The first units are to be delivered in 2022. Descript ...

is built by the compan
Lightyear
whose founder and CEO Lex Hoefsloot has already won the World Solar Challenge several times, e.g. in 2013 with the car "

Stella Stella or STELLA may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media Comedy *Stella (comedy group), a comedy troupe consisting of Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain Characters *Stella (given name), including a list of characters with th ...

" (Solar Team Eindhoven,

Technical University Eindhoven The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc a ...

). The car was scheduled to go into production in 2021. In September 2021, Lightyear was reported to have raised $110 million to bring the vehicle to production, and is planning to deliver the first units in 2022.Lightyear raises $110 million to bring its $170,000 'solar' electric car to market - Electrek(archived)
/ref>

Stella

The 4-seater "

" was built for the 2013

Eindhoven University The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc and ...

. It was the winner in its class, and went on to win the

crunchies The Crunchies was an industry award given out from 2007 to 2017 by several technology blogs to the Silicon Valley companies and venture capitalists they cover. The awards have been sponsored and co-hosted by blogs such as GigaOm, TechCrunch, Ventu ...

award.

Stella Lux

The 4-seater "Stella Lux" was built as successor of Stella for the 2015

. It was the winner in its class again. With a top speed of 125 km/h and a European range of 1000 kilometers it is a substantial achievement with respect to common electric vehicles.

Stella Vie

In 2017 the Eindhoven team have built a new car for the World Solar Challenge, called Stella Vie, featuring five instead of four seats. By its introduction, this car was the most efficient family car ever built. More efficient than its predecessors due to its light weight and aerodynamic form and efficient enough to win the Cruiser Class of the World Solar Challenge for the third consecutive time with a big lead on the competition.

Twente One

The Twente One is the second

solar car A solar car is a solar vehicle for use on public roads or race tracks. Solar vehicles are electric vehicles that use self-contained solar cells to power themselves fully or partially from sunlight. Solar vehicles typically contain a rechargeable b ...

developed by the

University of Twente The University of Twente (Dutch: ''Universiteit Twente''; , abbr. ) is a public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands. The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. ...

and Saxion University (at

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

Deventer Deventer (; Sallands: ) is a city and municipality in the Salland historical region of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. In 2020, Deventer had a population of 100,913. The city is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, bu ...

and

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. It is located about 60 km east of Utrecht, 60 km west of Enschede, 25 km north of Arnhem and 35 km south of Zwolle. The ...

) in 2007, and succeeds the

SolUTra The Solutra is the first solar car designed by a group of students, the Raedthuys Solar Team, of the University of Twente. It participated in the 8th World Solar Challenge in 2005 and finished 9th place. Another Dutch team won the race with their ...

. It was designed to participate in the 2007

. Its main innovations were a pivoting solar screen that follows the angle of the sun, and a system of

fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...

es that focus the sunlight onto a solar panel with a system to adjust the panel so that the maximum amount of light from the lenses shines on the individual

s. The Twente One came in on the fifth place in the 2007 World solar Challenge.

Specifications

New Zealand

UltraCommuter

The "UltraCommuter" from the

University of Waikato The University of Waikato ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato), is a Public university, public research university in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand established in 1964. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university perfo ...

was built for the 2013

Pakistan

ECO1, ECO1GL and ECO3GL

ECO1, ECO1GL and ECO3GL are built by a technology enthusiast and entrepreneur Muhammad Aslam Azaad. Built in March 2014.

Slovenia

Metron 7

A Mazda 5 was converted to an electric car named Metron 7 by Andrej Pecjak and his Metron team and in 2014 permitted for public use. Range with solar charging (160 Watt) is a few kilometers per day. Range with fully charged accumulator is 824 ! kilometers, proved from Berlin to Karlsruhe and through cities with average speed 72 km/h in June 2016.

Superpiki

The project "Yuneec & Metron" convert a Smart Roadster to an electric car with 80 Wp solar panel in 2011. Range with solar charging only is a few kilometers per day. Range with fully charged accumulator is 160 kilometers.

Switzerland

CateCar

In 2017 CATECAR INDUSTRIES SA presented the prototype "Dragonfly", which has the following characteristics: 4-seater, lightweight, small, renewable and solar powered. The Dragonfly is a 560 kg vehicle certified in M1, with a cabin in flax, a solar roof, an aspirator of fine particles capturing them around the clock. Unfortunately, the development has not led to a production-ready vehicle, jet. On the website and in the media there are no further news since 2017.

Icare

The project "Icare" build a

Twike The Twike (a portmanteau of the words ''twin'' and ''bike'') is a human-electric hybrid vehicle (HEHV) designed to carry two passengers and cargo. Essentially a velomobile with an electrical hybrid engine, it can be driven in electric-only mode ...

(Hybrid: muscular strength + electric engine) with an additional solar trailer (1800 Wp) and a small wind generator (diameter 1,8 m). With that vehicle they circumnavigate the world in 2010/11.

Solar Taxi

This vehicle circumnavigate the world 2007/08 with "Lois Palmer" as driver. Energy was delivered to 50% from the solar trailer (6 m²) and to 50% from the power grid (which was indirectly produced by a solar installation in Switzerland). Power consumption: 8 kWh / 100 km.

Taiwan

Apollo Solar Cruiser Car

The "Apollo Solar Car Team" from

National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences (KUAS; ) was a university located in Yanchao District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History *In 1963, Taiwan Provincial Government assigned funds to establish the Provincial Kaohsiung Institute of Tech ...

build a solar car for the 2013

United States

Daedalus

"Daedalus" of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

was built in 2013 for the

. It is currently on display at the PTC world headquarters in

Boston, MA Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

Eos

"Eos" of the

was built in 2015 for the

and the 2016

American Solar Challenge The American Solar Challenge (ASC), previously known as the North American Solar Challenge and Sunrayce, is a solar car race across the United States. In the race, teams from colleges and universities throughout North America design, build, test ...

Aptera

The Aptera solar EV prototype from

Aptera Motors Aptera Motors (formerly Accelerated Composites) is an American startup high-efficiency car company based in Carlsbad, California. The original company, Aptera Motors, Inc., was founded in 2005 and liquidated in 2011. In 2019, Aptera Motors w ...

was shown and launched December, 2020. As of December 2021 they are planning for first customer delivery in the later part of 2022."

References

{{Alternative propulsion Engineering education Solar cars (with homologation) * *