A RIDE IN TOMORROW’S CAR

Meet Stella, the Electric Family Car That Goes 500 Miles on a Charge and Is Powered by Sunshine; We take a ride in the road-ready solar sedan built by a team of Dutch students.

Todd Woody, Sept. 23, 2014 (TakePart)

“…The Stella [is a tadpole-shaped electric sedan covered in and powered solely by solar modules and] can go nearly 500 miles on a single charge. That’s almost double the range of the [Tesla] Model S…[Y]ou rarely would even need to plug the car into an electrical outlet given that its 1.5 kilowatt solar array continuously charges the lithium-ion battery pack—as long as the sun is shining…A [suburban rooftop] solar panel system typically generates three to five kilowatts…

“…[The Stella] is billed as the world’s first solar-powered family car, carrying four people in a low-slung cabin. Lift up the solar panels on the car’s fishtail trunk, and there’s room for groceries. The Stella, which has a top speed of about 75 miles per hour, is packed with high-tech novelties such as a steering wheel that expands in your hands to signal that you’re exceeding the speed limit or contracts when you’re driving too slow. To activate the turn signals, you just squeeze the appropriate side of the steering wheel…[Built by a group of students at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, the Stella] meets Dutch safety standards…[T]he team drove the car from Los Angeles to San Francisco…powered almost entirely on sunshine…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet