I was part of the University of Michigan Solar Car team for about one semester. While they certainly aren’t practical, they can reach some decent speeds. The last generation’s car was capable of hitting about 85 mph (the acceleration was slow, however). I consider this quite fast!
i have seen news that there would be races between companies about who will make the best solar car. the max i think is 90 mph. they would be extremely costly to be built and tough to drive, basically only rich people can afford it. they need patience to drive such a slow car when they can afford the best of the sports cars, why would they buy them? if you need cars running with solar power they need solar panels the width of the highway roads with the current technology and now they have very little efficiency which needs to be improved to implement this idea.
North American colleges and universities have been racing their solar car prototypes for years. I don’t think it’s very well publicized outside the cities of the participating institutions, though.
March 21st, 2009 at 7:24 pm
HELLO! they did years ago! they just are not commercialized
March 21st, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Yah they have been around for a long time
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:26 am
yap,for about 20 years now….
March 25th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Yes – I did know that. A few years ago one drove through the city near where I live and it was this whole big deal and guess what?
It was overcast and rainy ALL that day.
LOL
March 27th, 2009 at 10:01 am
They made some movie about a solar car race with “rock you like a hurricane” in it check it out great stuff
March 30th, 2009 at 7:53 am
They have been widely publicized. Not too good for driving at night.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I was part of the University of Michigan Solar Car team for about one semester. While they certainly aren’t practical, they can reach some decent speeds. The last generation’s car was capable of hitting about 85 mph (the acceleration was slow, however). I consider this quite fast!
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:22 am
i have seen news that there would be races between companies about who will make the best solar car. the max i think is 90 mph. they would be extremely costly to be built and tough to drive, basically only rich people can afford it. they need patience to drive such a slow car when they can afford the best of the sports cars, why would they buy them? if you need cars running with solar power they need solar panels the width of the highway roads with the current technology and now they have very little efficiency which needs to be improved to implement this idea.
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
North American colleges and universities have been racing their solar car prototypes for years. I don’t think it’s very well publicized outside the cities of the participating institutions, though.