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Solar-powered vehicles are great but they've never really been very practical. Whether
it's solar race cars or the solar impulse plane they tend to take an awful lot of space
and engineering to get a very specialised vehicle out the other end capable of carrying
just one or two people, sometimes very slowly, sometimes not very far. So if solar power
is going to become mainstream, it really needs to appeal to the mainstream that's people
like you and me.
And that's where Solar Team Eindhoven, which is from the University of Eindhoven in the
Netherlands, come in. They've created the first fully solar powered family saloon and
not only have they built it, its passed all the Dutch safety tests so it's fully road
legal, you could buy one and drive it away tomorrow which means it is genuinely practical.
Solar panels on top of the vehicle charge batteries and power motors underneath it giving
it a range of over 300 miles before it needs to stop and be given a little top-up either
by parking or off the mains which is excellent news because range is the killer when it comes
to most electrically powered cars. Not only that but over the course of a normal days
use even in cloudy countries, the vehicle will generate roughly twice the energy it
needs and the rest can be fed back into the grid, earning a little cash for the owner.
Now obviously this is just a vehicle prototype but the team says it is fully scale-able and
all the parts could be built. It would cost around the same as any other mass production
car if it was produced in a factory. So, here's a car that's practical, that's realistic and
could actually be affordable and that means this might just be solar powers time to shine.
If you've come here from our 90 second bulletin then thank you. If you haven't then please
do go and check it out and check out some of the other amazing Truthloader videos to
my side. Enjoy the weekend, hopefully it's a sunny one for you and we'll see you again
on Monday.