Top-7 Most Prominent Solar Cell cars

While electric car manufacturers kept rolling out electric vehicles throughout the year, there was no dearth of analysts who believed that the electric car revolution would need the grids to deliver more electricity, which won’t always come from renewable sources of energy.

Here we have compiled a list of 7 of the most interesting cars that will be able to power themselves in a sustainable way. On this occasion we will discuss 6 prominent solar car models plus 1 production car with Solar panel feature that ever made from all over the world. Here we present those car models,

7. Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow/Alpha Real

Mercedes-Benz is not the best-known solar car manufacturer today, but in fact it was Mercedes-Benz’s Silver Arrow that won the Tour de Sol in 1985 (Switzerland)—the first ever rally for solar powered vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow/Alpha-Real solar car in Mercedes-Benz museum, Stuttgart. (Picture from: http://dailyfusion.net/)

The Tour de Sol was carried out annually from 1985 to 1993. The first event started on June 25 in Romanshorn on the Lake of Constance, and finished on June 30 in Geneva. 72 vehicles started in two classes; over 50 finished.

6. Honda Dream II

Honda Dream II, solar car, winner of the 1996 World Solar Challenge. Every three years, solar cars compete in this challenge to cross Australia from north to south. The route, from Darwin to Adelaide along the Stuart Highway, covers 3,000 kilometres.

Honda Dream II, solar car, winner of the 1996 World Solar Challenge. (Picture from: http://pveducation.org/)

Honda Dream II won the 1996 competition in 33 hours and 32 minutes, at an average speed of 89.76 kph (55.77 mph). Solar cars are designed to run on electricity produced by solar panels powered by sunlight.

5. Midnight Sun VII

This is the car that made the Guinness World Record for the "Longest Journey by Solar Electric Vehicle." The Midnight Sun VII solar car team from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, traveled a distance of 15,070 km (9,364 miles) through Canada and the United States, departing from Waterloo on 7 August and finishing in Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada, on 15 September 2004.

The Midnight Sun VII, the longest Journey by Solar Electric Vehicle. (Picture from: http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/)

4. General Motor Sunraycer

The GM Sunraycer was powered by an array of 7,200 solar cells, covering a total of 90 square feet. On a sunny day, the car could move as fast as 72.42 kph (45 mph) using solar power alone. On the road, the car normally used a battery to provide extra power for acceleration or climbing hills. Under those conditions, it could reach 96.56 kph (60 mph).

General Motor Suraycer. (Picture from: http://www.avinc.com/)

In November, 1987, the solar powered vehicle GM Sunraycer, designed and built by Detroit-based GM Hughes Electronics, AeroVironment, Inc. and more than a dozen other GM divisions and suppliers, sped to victory in an inaugural 3,138.22 km (1,950 mile) race across the middle of Australia. Nicknamed the Flying Cockroach by Australian journalists (due it its buglike physiognomy), the car covered the distance in 44 hours and 54 minutes, traveling at an average speed of 41 miles per hour. Including overnight stopovers, the entire trip from Darwin to Adelaide, along a desolate two-lane highway, took five and a half days.

3. Sunswift IV

The record for the fastest solar-powered car was 88.738 kph (approx. 55.14 mph) and was achieved by Sunswift IV, built by the University of New South Wales Solar Racing Team and driven by Barton Mawer (Australia) at the naval base HMAS Albatross near Nowra, in NSW, Australia, on 7 January 2011.

Sunswift IV, the World's Fastest Solar-Car. (Picture from: http://thetechjournal.com/)

This broke the previous record held by the General Motors car Sunraycer of 78.3 kilometers per hour (48.7 mph). The Sunswift IV car powered by 400 silicon cells is the project of a group of students from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. The car weighed around 200 kilograms (440.93 lbs) with its batteries removed, so the vehicle was powered only by its solar panels.

2. 2013 Toyota Prius Hybrid

The 2013 Toyota Prius Hybrid is not by any definition a solar car. However, we decided to include it to this review because of its new feature: the "solar roof". Solar panels that are fitted on the roof of the car can power a fan to circulate ambient air through the cabin when Prius is parked in direct sunlight.

2013 Toyota Prius Hybrid. (Picture from: http://www.egmcartech.com/)

The available Solar Roof is embedded with solar panels that can power a fan to circulate ambient air through the cabin when Prius is parked in direct sunlight. (Picture from: http://www.nbcnews.com/)

This feature helps keep cabin air temperature close to that of the outside air for a more comfortable return to the vehicle. While this is very far from a real solar-powered car, it is interesting to see that solar energy is being used as a power source in a mass produced car. (See the World's First 'Energy Positive' car.) *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | THE DAILY FUSSION]

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