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Dutch Students Prepare Solar-Powered Family Car
Student engineers from the Netherlands' Eindhoven University of Technology are testing what they describe as the world's first four-passenger solar-powered car.
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Student engineers from the Netherlands' Eindhoven University of Technology are testing what they describe as the world's first four-passenger solar-powered car.
The car, dubbed Stella, will participate in this year's World Solar Challenge, a 3,000-km (1,900-mile) race across Australia on Oct. 6-13. The vehicle will compete in the 26-year-old event's new "cruiser" class, which emphasizes practicality over speed.
The students say their car, whose tapered rear end serves as a large trunk, can achieve a top speed of 75 mph with four people on board.
A large array of monocrystalline silicon solar cells on the vehicle's roof reportedly generates at least 700 watts. The front-drive car will be powered by two in-wheel direct-drive electric motors that also generate electricity during vehicle braking. An onboard lithium-ion battery can store enough power to propel the vehicle for 600 km (370 miles) between recharges, according to the team.
To minimize vehicle weight, the students fabricated Stella with a sandwiched-aluminum "backbone" chassis and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic body.
The car is equipped with several novel features, including touchscreen-only controls and a steering wheel that expands and contracts to signal whether the car is traveling too fast or too slow.
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