The Venturi Eclectic is a zero emission car, running on solar sourced electric power, from the French/ Monegasque car manufacturer Venturi owned by Gildo Pastor. It functions as a small renewable energy production and storage plant (with a roof mounted

solar panel A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...

and its own

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

) and can be recharged at any outlet of the power grid. It was designed by

Sacha Lakic Sacha Lakic ( sr-Cyrl, Саша Лакић; born 1964) is a French automotive, furniture and product designer who has worked primarily in Paris and Luxembourg. Known for his "Onda" furniture line and Venturi electric cars, his work is described as ...

The Eclectic concept appeared at the

Paris Motor Show The Paris Motor Show (french: Mondial de l'Automobile) is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently take ...

in 2006, and was mentioned in

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

's Best Inventions of 2007. It is designed with 3 seats in a V-formation, with the driver at the apex, and has open sides. It is an

urban car The A-segment is the 1st category in the passenger car classification system defined by the European Commission. It is used for city cars, the smallest category of passenger cars defined. A-segment sales represent approx. 7-8% of the market in ...

and has a range of and a maximum speed of .

Eclectic 2.0

The Eclectic 2.0 is designed on similar principles but is more compact. It has more limited accommodation but would be more readily driven (and parked) in a crowded urban environment. The Eclectic 2.0 was first revealed at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.

Production

2010 was a strategic year for Venturi with the launch of construction of an assembly plant for its electric vehicles in

Sablé-sur-Sarthe Sablé-sur-Sarthe (, literally ''Sablé on Sarthe''), commonly referred to as Sablé, is a commune in the Sarthe department, in the Pays de la Loire region, western France. It is about 50 km northeast of Angers. Population Geography The ...

. However, despite the planned production here of three types of electric vehicle (the Eclectic, the Voxan Wattman electric motorcycle, and a three-wheeler utility vehicle) the factory closed in 2015. The Eclectic nevertheless remains noteworthy as the first solar-powered car developed with mass production in mind. Kirby Garlitos, 25 June 2015 'Voxan Wattman electric motorcycle goes by the wayside'
at topspeed.com, Accessed 12 April 2018

References

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External links

Venturi Eclectic listed at Electric Vehicle Info: Electric Car Model, Accessed 25 April 2018
Electric city cars Venturi vehicles