When most of us think of a car powered by solar power, the most practical option is a charging station that is powered primarily through the use of solar panels, either installed at home or as part of a larger charging station.
This is a system that has gotten ever more popular as photovoltaic cells have become more efficient, more affordable and more powerful, meaning that they are not only capable of potentially supplying a lot of the needs of a house but also charging an EV.
However, there are also cars that run directly on solar power, often using particularly innovative designs such as those seen at the World Solar Challenge.
The idea is that they can allow for long-distance personal mobility without a reliance on big batteries and both the weight and charging times that go along with them.
Interestingly, the concept of a solar-powered car is older than one might expect.
What is the First Solar-Powered Car?
The first car powered by solar panels is a vehicle that uses sunlight to run instead of gas. It has solar panels on its surface that catch sunlight and turn it into energy to move the car.
How Does the Solar-Powered Car Work?
Solar panels on the car collect sunlight and change it into electricity. This electricity powers the motor that drives the car, making it run without fuel or pollution.
Why is the First Solar Car Important?
This car shows us how we can use clean energy to travel without hurting the environment. It helps reduce air pollution and saves money on fuel.
Challenges of Solar-Powered Cars
Solar cars need lots of sunlight to work well and the solar panels can be expensive. They also may not run as fast or far as regular cars yet.
Ride Of The Sunmobile
On 31st August 1955, at the General Motors Powerama convention in Chicago Illinois, inventor William G Cobb took to the stage with a car powered by 12 selenium photovoltaic cells, attached to a Pooley electric motor.
This was the Sunmobile, and it was the first-ever functioning solar car, however, the catch to this innovation is that it was also 15 inches long (38.1cm), far too small to carry any passengers outside of action figures and hamsters.
It was also a relatively rudimentary design; besides being literally a toy car designed to look like the 1955 Chevrolet Corvette, the cells were directly connected to the tiny motor, meaning that there were no controls and movement happened whenever sunlight hit the cells.
It was certainly an interesting proof of concept, but it would ultimately not go anywhere. GM would not make a full-sized solar car for 32 years with the GM Sunraycer in 1987, a much more capable proof of concept.
However, it made the history books and proved that it was technically possible to use photovoltaics to drive a vehicle, even if it was tiny.
The first solar car to take passengers would not emerge until 1962, a full seven years after the Sunmobile’s outing.
The International Rectifier Company, a power management company that is now part of Infineon Technologies, wanted to show the potential for electricity and did so by fitting a 1912 Baker Electric car with a solar panel roof.
Instead of the 12 cells the Sunmobile had, the full-sized Solar Baker had a panel with over 10,600, enough to get the ancient car moving, albeit not very quickly.
The work on the Baker was completed in 1958, but it took another four years for it to be showcased. When it was, regardless of the old car’s inherent limitations, it showed that passengers could be carried in a solar-powered car.
Most of the innovations from that point left the Earth and joined the Space Race, but there were still pioneers in solar cars, from the Bluebird to a solar-powered version of the Citicar to the giant leaps forward in the 1980s.
This innovation helped improve the quality of solar panels for stationary use as well.
