A guy built a one-off electric car that’s fully powered by solar panels and can offer ‘unlimited range’.
On the face of it, solar panels powering EVs seem like a solid plan: clean energy that can be collected for free from the sun.
But in reality, electric vehicles just don’t have the amount of space required to for solar energy to make a meaningful contribution to the charging needs of the battery.
However, YouTuber Drew Builds Stuff – who has worked on numerous cool DIY projects – set out to see if it would be possible.
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The DIY solar powered EV held eight panels in total
It’s certainly not a new idea, we’ve previously seen one Tesla Model Y owner fit panels to his car, while there’s even a startup company in Holland dedicated to getting solar paneled cars out there.
In fact, this isn’t even the first attempt from Drew Builds Stuff – he has plans for a 3000W 48V EV available to download for free on his website.
But this experiment was a little bit different, opting to go heavy with the panels to see if ‘unlimited range’ was possible.
Firstly, Drew started off by making a super-sized trailer to hold the solar panels.
He crafted a 4.2 meter (14ft) trailer – long enough to fit six 175w solar panels – that could be attached to a DIY car, which he then hooked up to a charge controller.
He managed to drive the car more than 150 miles
The ‘car’ itself has a tube frame chassis and is designed for just one occupant, with zero protection for the driver, and solar panels on just about every available surface.
But if you can ignore that, you’re actually left with an impressive DIY EV.
In total, Drew drove 249km (155 miles) in his car – using a battery that without solar assistance can usually do 56km to 72km (35-45 miles).
The weather was very much on his side, with sunshine throughout the day, and Drew reckoned he could have got as much as 300km (186 miles) before the sun went down and that if used ‘perfectly’ it could go up to 400km (248km).
Drew admits that, for now, the car has ‘no real world, practical value’ – but who knows where this tech could one day take us?
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