This Dutch built prototype of a new style solar car does not skimp on features, and still claims a 500 mile range.
The Stella, though, 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.
They said cost to build this prototype was "enormously expensive" but believe it can be manufactured for the price of "a normal car." And, of course, they hope it will be available in "five to ten years."
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday September 27 2014, @01:42AM
Cost?
Loading capacity?
Road worthiness among idiots in other vehicles?
Capability to handle rough weather or snow and ice?
Maintaince cost?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 27 2014, @01:56AM
it's just a car with a solar panel on it dude; not a space shuttle
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 27 2014, @01:59AM
holy shit i just clicked the link. it's not just a car with a solar panel on it. wtf
when i read the headline i imagined a solar panel on a prius (or something similar)
-1 didn't read TFA
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 27 2014, @01:59AM
Yes.
No.
Yes. (meets Dutch safety standards)
No. (This is Holland after all)
Yes.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday September 27 2014, @03:11AM
Add to that, the wheels look pitifully small, the road clearance looks hopelessly optimistic, and there' not even a pretense of a legal bumper.
So even slight parking bumps are going to do damage, unless you fall in a pothole first.
These are interesting proof of concept vehicles, but they are not designed for the real world.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by gman003 on Saturday September 27 2014, @05:17AM
1) "Family" car? It looks like it can fit at most five people - and they better be short, since it's so low to the ground it could probably pass underneath a Hummer.
2) 500 miles... if it can charge off the sun while running. Otherwise, the range is unlisted, but probably much lower. So if you regularly need a 500-mile range, this car's not for you unless you live in the Atacama, and never drive at night.
3) "Manufactured for price of a normal car" and "all-carbon-fiber body" do not belong in the same sentence. I think it more likely we'll see a street-legal version of the Abrams than see a cheap production version of this car.
4) 5-10 years [xkcd.com] in researcher time translates to either "I've solved the interesting research problems. The rest is just business, which is easy enough, right?" or "We haven't finished inventing it yet, but when we do, it'll be awesome." in actual time.
5) So they felt the weight was so important that they used carbon fiber construction to bring the car down to 855lbs. So what happens when you load that up with a full family, plus maybe some groceries?
6) That car is seriously ugly. I know it's a prototype but even the basic design looks like crap to me.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Saturday September 27 2014, @06:33AM
> if you regularly need a 500-mile range
All very American posts tonight...
It was designed in the Netherlands, people. I'm not convinced you can drive 250 miles one way and still be in the same country...
Well over 98% of all European car trips are less than 20 miles, and yes you won't go on winter vacation in this thing with a tiny trunk, but that's not the point.
Americans tend to want taxes to be low just in case they suddenly get rich, the same way that you want a massive SUV just in case you have to suddenly carry two full sheets of plywood (authentic example). Europeans buy based on daily use, and rent the 1% of the time when it doesn't fit the need.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by gman003 on Saturday September 27 2014, @03:18PM
I'm not saying that's a killer feature. Hell, my morning commute is five miles, and my car has a range of maybe 300 on a full tank.
I'm just arguing that, if they cannot reliably go 500 miles, they need to be up-front about that, and that advertising a 500-mile range is disingenuous when that's weather-dependent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 27 2014, @07:13PM
At 70 miles per hour, that would be over 7 hours.
If you *regularly* spend that kind of time behind the wheel, your life must be a misery.
...and, of course, the range isn't rated at that speed, so the time under the wheel is even longer.
USAians are so silly when it comes to cars and their ranges.
...and if you are going to make an extremely long trip by car (What? Once a year?), splurge and RENT a nice big comfortable ICE road car.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2, Interesting) by SacredSalt on Saturday September 27 2014, @12:11PM
The car will flex and flex again similar to how certain model Hondas do until the alignment is off, and if truly carry heavy loads for any extended time -- it will show where you carried them over time.
Carbon fiber is a great short term material, but you need some steel or at least aluminum in there to help with some pretense of a frame for real life roads, and your mechanic -- who doesn't have access to carbon fiber putty -- to put it back together in an accident. Can you imagine the cost of a simple fender bender? You need to fully replace 10 panels of carbon fiber, that will be $29,000 ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 27 2014, @08:11PM
So they felt the weight was so important that they used carbon fiber construction to bring the car down to 855lbs. So what happens when you load that up with a full family, plus maybe some groceries?
In America? The car mass would to double, at least.
Where the average male waist is now over 1m, what do you expect?
(Score: 2) by EvilJim on Sunday September 28 2014, @10:55PM
You'd better hope you never have a run in with an SUV or your family will be flatmates. I wonder what the range increase would be on a current electric vehicle if you just removed all the steel and replaced it with carbon fibre? I imagine a little safety come crash time would be handy.