Solar-powered car drives 620 miles across desert

The Stella Terra off-road vehicle looks like a cross between a toy car and a bicycle helmet, but if form is meant to follow function this could be the automotive look of the future, especially where EV recharging points are scarce. The Stella Terra is solar-powered, with panels on its roof that radically shrink the size of battery it needs to carry, making it lighter than other electric SUVs and better-suited to bad roads. It was built by students at the Eindhoven University of Technology who took it for a 620-mile drive across Morocco earlier this month, managing about 440 miles per charge on roads and 340 off-road. The car does use up charge faster than the panels can replenish it; hence the limit. But the fact of charging as it goes along means it can go about 30 miles further when the sun’s out – and it banishes range anxiety altogether, as long as time is not an issue

Photograph Bart van Overbeeke / Solar Team Eindhoven

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