This list of prototype

solar cars 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 provide full or partial power to the vehicle via sunlight. Solar vehicles typically contain a rechar ...

comprises multiperson, relatively practical

vehicle A vehicle () is a machine designed for self-propulsion, usually to transport people, cargo, or both. The term "vehicle" typically refers to land vehicles such as human-powered land vehicle, human-powered vehicles (e.g. bicycles, tricycles, velo ...

s powered completely or significantly by

solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

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 the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible spectrum, visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrare ...

into

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

to drive

electric motors An electric motor is a 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 Laplace force i ...

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

Australia

Sunswift V (eVe)

The Sunswift V (aka "

eVe Eve 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 universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and there ...

") from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

was built for the 2013 & 2015

World Solar Challenge The World Solar Challenge (WSC), named the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge since 2013, is an international event for solar powered cars. The course is over 3,022 Kilometers (1,878 miles) through the Australian outback, from Darwin in ...

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 the state of South Australia. History On 1 November 2012, TAFE SA became a statutory corporation, separate from the SA Government's Department of Further Education, E ...

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 {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

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 British reference book published annually, list ...

. 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 University may refer to: *Manipal Academy of Higher Education, formerly known as Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India ** Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai, formerly known as Manipal University Dubai *Manipal University Jai ...

(MAHE) built a prototype 2-seater solar passenger car called "SERVe" in 2015.

Electro-X India

Tea
Electro-X
of engineering students from

Galgotias University , Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU), formerly Uttar Pradesh Technical University, has a total of 592 institutes affiliated to it located across 55 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow district has the higher number of colleges ...

, developed a 2-seater solar powered Electric car.

Vayve Mobility

Developed the Vayve EVA 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 founde ...

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).'' Venturi operated for nearly sixteen years, before declaring bankruptcy in 20 ...

has built the open 2-seater " Astrolab" 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 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 Films * ''Stella'' (1921 film), directed by Edwin J. Collins * ''Stella'' (1943 film), with Zully Moreno * ''Stella'' (1950 film), with Ann Sheridan and Victor Mature * ''Stella'' (1955 ...

" (Solar Team Eindhoven,

Technical University Eindhoven The Eindhoven University of Technology (), Abbreviation, abbr. TU/e, is a public university, public technical university in the Netherlands, situated in Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its Bachelor of Science, BS ...

). 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. It was produced for 2 months from December 2022 through January 2023.

Stella

The 4-seater "

" was built for the 2013

Eindhoven University The Eindhoven University of Technology (), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, situated in Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc and MSc programs and around 1350 students were enr ...

. 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, Ven ...

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.

Squad Solar

Squad Solar The Squad Solar is a neighborhood electric vehicle or microcar that has a solar panel on top to make it a solar car. The vehicle can also be plugged into a regular outlet to be powered by the grid. The vehicle is manufactured by Squad Mobility B ...

is a neighborhood electric vehicle or

microcar Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are ofte ...

that has a solar panel on top to make it a

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 provide full or partial power to the vehicle via sunlight. Solar vehicles typically contain a recha ...

Twente One

The Twente One is the second

developed by the

University of Twente The University of Twente ( ; Abbreviation, abbr. ) is a Public university, 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 (; local ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the province of Overijssel and the Twente region of the eastern Netherlands. The east of the urban area reaches ...

Deventer Deventer (; Sallaans dialect, Sallands: ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Salland historical region of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel, ...

and

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including the villages of Beekbergen, Loenen (Apeldoorn), Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo ...

) in 2007, and succeeds the SolUTra. 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 (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, d ...

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

solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

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 (), established in 1964, is a Public university, public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in nume ...

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 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 Twike, based in Rosenthal, is a German manufacturer of light electric vehicles in the European Union vehicle class L5e (US motorcycle). The main product, the Twike (a portmanteau of the words ''twin'' and ''bike''), is a human-electric hybrid ...

(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.

Aletsch

In 2023, the solar car ''Aletsch'', developed by a team of 40 students from ETH Zurich known as aCentauri Solar Racing, participated in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. Aletsch, weighing 188 kilograms and capable of reaching speeds up to 120 km/h, was engineered over the course of a year to endure the extreme conditions of the race, including temperatures of up to 50°C, rough road surfaces, and strong crosswinds. Despite being first-time entrants, the ETH Zurich team completed the race and secured 12th place overall. The project aimed not only at competitive performance but also at promoting innovation and sustainability in electric vehicle design.

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 Te ...

build a solar car for the 2013

United States

Aptera

The Aptera solar EV prototype from

Aptera Motors Aptera Motors Corp. is an American crowdfunding, crowd funded, pre-production startup company based in Carlsbad, California which intends to manufacture an electric two-seat three-wheeler. The company had raised $140 million from 2019 to April 2 ...

was shown and launched December, 2020. As of January 2023, first customer availability is expected in 2024.

Daedalus

"Daedalus" of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

was built in 2013 for the

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

Boston, MA Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

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 ...

References

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

Solar Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...