Chinese Company Unveils Solar-Powered Car for $5,560
The Zhejiang 001 Group has produced a tiny car powered entirely by the solar panels on its roof.
The panels can charge the battery enough for a 3-mile trip in just one hour. After a full charge of 30 hours in the sun, the car can travel up to 90 miles.
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The vehicle was debuted at the 29th Zhejiang International Bicycles and Electric-powered Cars Exhibition last week. The panels are not integrated into the car’s design, but rather stand above the car much like a typical roof-rack attachment.
According to the company, the panels can absorb up to 95 percent of solar energy, but can only transform 14 to 17 percent to electricity.
Roof panels aside, the car is nearly identical to China’s popular economy vehicle, the Cherry QQ, which is pictured above. Only ten of the solar cars have been manufactured so far, but more production is planned. Unfortunately, you won’t have much luck finding one outside of China.
Photo Credit: Anuradha on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
Those of you who lament US safety laws haven’t been in a serious accident. However, as commutercars.com shows us, small and light does not need to equal dangerous or slow. This idea would be great to see on the US market.
yes yes yes. now this is what i am talking about. is america ran by retards. why do we have to wait till the chinese do it. gm, ford, chrysler- i hope your companies are retired to the ashes of history very soon. you would think that a few 100,000 unemployed people in detroit would have thought of this a long time ago. if you compare u.s.capitalism to chinese communism, c’mon man. maybe we should change our flag, 50 little red stars.
Super but, when come this car on the market .I living in Réunion Island where the sun don’t stop to shine.
Wait and see.
Hey, at least if you’re caught in a rush hour traffic jam with a solar powered car, you aren’t burning energy, you’re producing it!
Nice, but 5,560, safety is not included.