Amidst the increasing buzz around green cars, and innovative green car designs gaining grounds, Taiwan is ready with the prototype of a solar powered car that could hit the markets soon. The car was featured at the World Solar Challenge 2007, weighs a mere 250 kg and can reach speeds of 70 km/hr. All this with no emissions, powered by the sun!
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The vehicle’s roof is fitted with satellite-grade solar cells that harvest sunlight to power the car. The car comes with lithium-polymer batteries which can keep the car running for 3 hrs after being charged. The parts of the car are made with
Nomex honeycomb, a material known for its high strength, excellent impact, fire resistance, and light weight. The fiber was originally developed by Dupont Chemical for the aviation industry, and is widely used in aircraft and aerospace components.
The car is designed by the researchers at Taiwan’s National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences. It is inspired by Apollo Solar Car, made by the Apollo Solar Car Team. The team was founded in 1998, and was the first solar car team in Taiwan. The team is headed by Professor Herchang Ay, and comprises mostly of engineering students.
The car ranked second out of more than 50 cars which competed at the Panasonic World Solar Chall[enge, Across Australia, Darwin to Adelaide. The car is expected to be launched this year and would come at a price tag of $25,000.
+ Taiwan Solar Car
+ Kaohsiung University Solar Car (original design)
Good move! Now to push it into lower cost through volume, upgrade storage capacity or maybe just provide a lot of recharge points to cater for driving after dark, and see to the material in the body. Is Nomex recyclable? Toxic? What is the actual resource trail behind the material? Will we be left with a stockpile of unusable Nomex shells after a a few decades? I have to say, I am not adequately informed on the specifics of the Nomex lifecycle, or for that matter, the lithium batteries, but this looks like a good start. Keep tweaking the materials and it’s bound to get better and better.
Great work. I look forward to more progress.