Nov 8 2007The Solar Bug Solar Car Becomes Reality
The Solar Bug is an electric car that has solar panels on top capable of recharging its batteries (lead acid based) to increase the car’s range by 1/3. The company hopes to be able to make the car run 100% on solar energy in the future. It's got a top speed of 35 mph, a range of 60 miles, and takes 4-6 hours to recharge via plug (for a cost of 30-60¢). It weighs 900 pounds and will go for around $9,500 when it hits the road next year. This thing really reminds me of the first car I had in high school. Well if you want to get technical it wasn't so much a car as a refrigerator box I painted to look like a Firebird. Semantics. The point is that they are both yellow. I never got laid in that box, but the seniors would throw eggs at me when I sat in it making 'VROOM VROOM' noises.
One more picture (a real photo, but poor resolution) after the drive.
Solar Bug to go on Sale [ubergizmo]
Reader Comments
1. joejoe - November 8, 2007 3:16 PM
dude I want one!
2. jumpin_j - November 8, 2007 3:24 PM
People may laugh at you for driving a clown car, but after you save all that $$$ on gas, you can laugh back at them when they're all homeless.
3. boredom - November 8, 2007 4:10 PM
Can't wait till that thing hits one of those pimp my ride shows. It's kind of useless at 35 mph and only 60 mile range. At that point just use a bycicle, you're prob safer
4. mint - November 8, 2007 5:29 PM
Finally!
I've been waiting for ages for someone to bridge the gap between the mini cooper and a golf cart
Yay for road legal golf carts!
5. shimmy - November 8, 2007 7:36 PM
I'm pretty sure you could just mount that body on a quad and it would be the same thing. Plus, it would go faster. But you would be using gas, not much though.
6. Rose - November 8, 2007 9:20 PM
I'm all for small cars and for being cheap and officiant, but the incredibly slow speed and small range kind of kill this. I think it'd be more appropriate on a very large golf course.
Just my two cents.
7. benjamin - November 8, 2007 10:03 PM
okay so it looks alright on the outside...sorta a styling project...no..it is a stying project...what needs to happen is solar bug needs to have a better interior..it's just a shell over a 4x4 chassis...so until something really happens..its just a concept..not a reality...well or a crappy american capitalist wannabe try...
next object...ding ding..
8. John - November 8, 2007 11:35 PM
Right: too thin, too yellow and goes too little with what I expect to be too low capacity of a battery for an electric auto. Why not just keep riding a electric vespa-esque scooter? For less than $2k it beats the pants off, ride circles around and other unsuitable metaphors for being a better vehicle, this thing that looks like it used to be a placard for doomsayers in the 1930s. "THE END IS NEAR, EVERYONE'S DRIVING PERSONAL VEHICLES THAT STILL HAVE A HIGH OIL COST TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN AND CAN'T EVEN CARPOOL"
9. Dick Johnson - November 9, 2007 1:31 AM
This is a great idea, but I can just imaging driving around town at 35 miles/hour being passed by assholes in pickup trucks and 1990's ford mustang's. I want an electric car badly, but I wish they didn't always have to look so strange and alternative. One day I'm going to sell the real-deal on my site. www.econiclife.com
10. Feckless - November 9, 2007 6:16 AM
Grandma & Grandpas' Vespa.
11. Huh - November 12, 2007 1:32 AM
I don't know. I just don't know. It's not right.....