"Stella" - the world's first solar powered family car (TU/e)
 

This is excellent! A solar powered car that seats at least four people:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=905HHucCkKI

[youtube]905HHucCkKI[/youtube]

The Solar Team Eindhoven (STE) of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) presented the world's first solar-powered family car. "Stella" is the first "energy-positive car" with room for four people, a trunk, intuitive steering and a range of 600 kilometers (373 miles). This is the car being entered by the student team in the Cruiser class of the World Solar Challenge that starts in Australia in October 2013.

"Stella" was created by a team of 22 students from the University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Stella is the first solar car with four seats with a range of 600 km (373 miles) per charge ! It combines an aerodynamic design with lightweight materials, such as carbon fiber and aluminum.

Stella will get the official certification for road use, becoming street legal and will be for sale in Europe.

http://www.designboom.com/technology...ed-family-car/

Students in the Netherlands unveil a solar-powered family car — Tech News and Analysis

Stella is the World's First Solar-Powered Family Car! | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

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But, is it crashworthy (the body sway at time 10:00+)?

Nevertheless, gotta love that double-curved, inswept-T rear end design and the permanently enclosed front wheels!

http://www.designboom.com/wp-content...mily-car09.jpg

It's a solar racer car that seats four. The battery pack is the "spine" between the seats, and the range of ~370 miles - without the sun shining, I presume?

So, it is not fully equivalent to a typical car and yes the doors and the roof are obviously deflecting. I would love to see a slightly taller version - it could take a nod in the direction of the Schlörwagen, or Sven7's Linner Strømlinet Vogn.

I wonder what kind of range extention that a Nissan Leaf could get from a roof like that.

This car is probably in the ~50Wh/mile area, and the solar PV is likely ~1,000-1200W, so a Leaf would need *at least* 4X as much energy to be even close to self-sustaining.

Weight of Stella is 380 kg (830 pounds), and battery capacity is 15 kWh; according to Jelmer333 on their Youtube channel. That means the it is <41Wh/mile. Oh, and they are using Marand hub motors that are ~98.3% efficient.

Think about that - that is about 44X less waste than a typical ICE.

Has anybody tried this before? It seems simple enough. I find it curious that this is so low while it seems that the more "economical" a car is supposed to be, the taller it is, and I think the smartcar is the tallest.

I was just curious how the front skirts affected the steering. The wheels do not seem to be very far inside the body and it appeared to steer fine, although I did not pay enough attention to notice the body sway, I just wanted to see the front wheels while turning.

New video on the Stella (in Dutch!):

Eindhoven brengt auto op zonne-energie naar de openbare weg - Video's - Tweakers

If someone who speaks Dutch can answer this - the video shows the Stella with the solar PV cells covered up, and my guess is that they are testing the battery and the drivetrain as a 'stand alone' system?

The rollcage is a new addition since the last video, and it seems to have stabilized the whole structure.

Not really... shorter cars just tend to be made taller to give them decent comfort (seats closer together... passengers have to sit more upright).

The Mirage has the best drag coefficient in the class (versus Spark et al), but they made it longer and lower than your typical Euro/Asian supermini.

ZZ TOP - LOWRIDER LYRICS
ZZ Top - Lowrider Lyrics
Interesting vehicle.

Sounds like it's battery powered since it has a range.

This explains it a bit better:

Solar-Powered Energy-Positive Vehicle Goes 544 Miles on a Single Charge

544 miles starting with a charged batteries plus energy from the sun on a partly cloudy day - sounds pretty darn good to me!

They won!
 

Eindhoven wins Cruiser class of World Solar Challenge
Stella won the Cruiser class of the World Solar Challenge in Australia. Driving most of their stages with 3 or 4 occupants where the competition had usually only the driver aboard.

The Stella (the only road legal car in the whole Challenge) performed better than expected.
Cars in the Cruiser class could charge overnight and even midway at some stages. The Stella team decided to skip a midway recharging point because they simply did not need it and could make better progress without it!

That is excellent news!

http://www.tue.nl/typo3temp/pics/44d5f110d2.jpg

Who was the winner in the 2 seat class?

You can see the times at Citizen Timing Board | World Solar Challenge 2013
The final results were determined by jury to compensate for the number of passengers etc. but don't show in the timing.

Full list here:
http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org/f...iser_class.pdf

Okay, I misunderstood the classes. The UNSW eVe car was in the same class as the Stella; even though the eVe is a 2 seat car and the Stella is a 4 seat. The eVe had a quicker time than the Stella, but (probably) lost because they have fewer seats and had only the driver onboard.

Now they just need to post a diy BOM so we can take a antique junk car and make a hobbiest version :)

FIW: A "soul" group called War was the first to record the song "Low Rider" in the mid 70's.

Jim.

They won... again!
 

This time they got a crunchie.

☯ Stellas Solar Car Wins The Crunchie For Best Technology Achievement ☯| Senpai's breaking news, analysis, and research keeps business technology professionals
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The TU Eindhoven just presented Stella Lux, the updated version:
Stella Lux - Solar Team Eindhoven | Solar Team Eindhoven

Well, this was unexpected:

http://www.solarteameindhoven.nl/wp-...esented-06.jpg

I actually clicked on the link hoping they would explain the tunnel. No, they just say that it is aerodynamic.

That does not make sense to me, either.

I did not find much else on that site.

I suspect the tunnel is for reduction of frontal area. The whole car looks weird anyway, so that bit is ok :P

Same thoughts. They've probably designed the tunnel for as little turbulence as possible, and cut out that section completely to reduce total CdA.

Looks wicked. Where can I buy one? :D

Also... OMG, somebody give their web optimization guys a quick rap on the head... my browser is choking on those pics!

I think the tunnel may also give more structural strength than an entirely flat floor would. It is carbon fiber all right.
On the whole this incarnation looks much more solid, separate doors instead of a flimsy double sized wing door and no B pillar.

I like what they did to the back... fold the lower part of the sides in to reduce the wake, rather than a cone tail.
http://www.solarteameindhoven.nl/wp-...esented-01.jpg
Don't think that is particularly safe for road use though, wouldn't like to run into that sharp rear edge.

Oh man! Surely that tunnel is a step too far. And the front seats still look like they're much too far back.
The front would do better to take cues from the iMiev. In fact the iMiev Sport concept was a more practical looking thing than this.

I just realised what this looks like. A futuristic monorail carriage...

You could not drive the iMiev for 200 miles on one charge even if it was entirely coated in high grade solar cells.

This baby can drive over 400 miles (700 km) on one charge, and up to 600 miles in the (Dutch) summer...

http://solarteameindhoven.nl/wp-cont...1-1024x576.png

In June you can drive this car for 200 miles a day, every day, without ever needing to charge it.
In the winter you'd need one charge a week to maintain 200 miles daily.
If you drive like say 60 miles a day you'd probably never need to charge it.
Blows my mind!

It would be weird to need to park my car in the sun... :)

I do that! I park nose heading to where the sun will be when I return so the sun heats up the engine bay. Unless it is really hot like these days (over 30°C), then the A/C would eat whatever I've gained.

The tunnel is probably great for marriages and for keeping the kids from fighting.

As RedDevil says, it likely contributes a good amount to structural stiffness besides lowering CdA. For your typically fliimsy solar racer, that's a good thing!

We'll have to see how they do in the cross Australia this year. Last year they won, and they averaged having 3 people in the car during the race - nobody else did that!

It appears that this year's rules are a bit less focused on practicality and passenger kms and a little more towards speed again.

I think they would have probably done a tunnel like this even if it wasn't for the increased focus on speed, but the focus leaning towards more speed demanded it. I believe the array area is more or less the same as the previous car but the cabin width has been reduced slightly too, hence the over-hang at the top sides.

I've played around with layouts and there is almost no way around their design, unless you're willing to give up more m² for the solar array (non Gallium Arsenide). Hence, you're unlikely to see a sportier looking car with a near 6m² solar panel coverage for the silicon-base sells.