Chinese-made solar-powered car gets 150 kilometers on a 30-hour charge

It may not attract the same sort of glances as a Tesla, or a Volt, for that matter, but this solar-powered car built by China's Zhejiang 001 Group is pretty impressive in its own right, both for its price (just $5,560), and it's efficiency. That latter bit is a result of some rather un-integrated solar panels, which absorb 95% of the solar energy they take in and convert it to electricity at between 14 and 17% efficiency, which is actually pretty impressive as far as solar panels go. According to the company, that should let you travel about 150 kilometers on a 30-hour charge, though you'll only be able to go five kilometers on a one-hour charge. No word on a release outside of China, as you might have guessed, but the company has apparently already produced ten of 'em for sale inside the country, with more presumably on the way.

[Via The Oil Drum]

[Jon @ Oct 17th 2008 2:25PM]

Make a variant of the Chevy Volt without the diesel generator, but with solar panels on the roof, hood, and trunk (as opposed to just bolted on).

That'd be neat.

[iEye @ Oct 17th 2008 4:11PM]

Anything to put free clean energy in the hands of the people and at the same time taking away mass amounts of profits from oil pigs...

I'll be happy when every other gas station goes out of business or starts to give out free car washes out of desperation.

[happy_penguin @ Oct 17th 2008 4:23PM]

No Chevy Volt is planned to have a diesel generator.

[Twitchy @ Oct 17th 2008 5:34PM]

Actually, Happy_Penguin, there are plans for a diesel engine in the European version of the Volt.

And I'd definitely get that rather than this car, especially considering the awful safety record of Chinese cars to date http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbe5ILICT4M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5SRyG6UR2A

[happy_penguin @ Oct 17th 2008 6:39PM]

The only thing I found on it is this and while it will use some Volt tech it is not a Volt.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/automotive_news/4222176.html?series=32

Do you have any other information on a diesel Volt?

[macserv @ Oct 17th 2008 10:52PM]

No diesel info, but Bob Lutz did himself say that there would be an option on the Volt for a photovoltaic roof, which would let you trickle-charge the battery, or run the air conditioner on a low setting to keep the cabin cooler on hot days.

[TruthHurts @ Oct 18th 2008 1:45AM]

1. This Typical Chinese Crap is no surprisingly a knockoff of "old" Daewoo Matiz [Design]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daewoo_Matiz

2. All Chinese cars are "deathtraps" [Quality/Safety]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ3oyo-irJ4 (Asian Car Comparison Guide: Japanese vs. Korean vs. Chinese)

Truth Hurts.

[happy_penguin @ Oct 18th 2008 2:37PM]

HOLY SHIT!

The cabin intrusion on those Chinese cars is beyond unacceptable. And they put air bags in those cars? What the hell is that for??

So much for Chinese auto engineering. There is NO way I would get into one of those deathtraps. No fucking way!

[Twitchy @ Oct 19th 2008 7:31AM]

The European variant, made by Opel , will be based on the Volt chassis and drive train - only the body and name will be different, although this has yet to be confirmed. It may well just release as is in Europe, except that the diesel will still be an option as one would be hard pressed to sell a petrol powered vehicle over there.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/09/10/meet-the-euro-volt-opel-flextreme-concept-has-ultra-low-emissio/

[rock99rock @ Oct 17th 2008 2:27PM]

Fugly or not, i would buy this for 5g's right now. Nothing some racing strips, a spoiler, and air freshener hangin from the rearview cant handle.

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 2:28PM]

You know. I thought it would be virtually impossible to screw this Chinese car up. But you never cease to amaze, Rock.

[Kamokazi @ Oct 17th 2008 2:53PM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dimg2n2Azwg

Watch that and tell me you want to own a Chinese-made car again.

[Alex @ Oct 17th 2008 2:54PM]

Air freshener?
Fluffy Dice, more like.

[kal326 @ Oct 17th 2008 3:13PM]

@Kamokazi
You call it poor crash test results, China calls it population control.

[joe23521 @ Oct 17th 2008 3:18PM]

@Kamokazi,

Those cars in the video, of course, represent every single Chinese car ever made and ever to be made.

(That said, this here solar car doesn't exactly strike me as particularly safe. I'll give you that much.)

[Mikey @ Oct 17th 2008 4:22PM]

@Kamokazi

Many of the cheap foreign cars are meant for slow speed city driving. The crashes shown are not representative of normal driving conditions in crowded city streets.

[zoopthegame @ Oct 17th 2008 5:24PM]

@kamokazi:

I agree with your logic. I don't buy American cars, either, because I once went into a museum and stole an old Ford and test-drove it. It didn't even go 30 miles per hour. So now I don't buy any car made in America because none of them go over 30 miles per hour.

[ScooterDe @ Oct 17th 2008 5:06PM]

@Mikey, don't try to excuse poor design. Whatever the speed, airbags and structural integrity make a real difference to mortality.
However, it is clear that China is not yet at the standard of European and US car makers - in terms of safety, aesthetics or lack of financial viability.
We in the West might balk at their safety standards and lack of quality control, but China is a relatively poor country full of people who are willing to cut some corners to have a better lifestyle. We benefit when they produce a copycat phone or PMP at a lower cost, but we balk at auto designs that fail to match safety standards.
Not so long ago we didn't have airbags, or even seat-belts for everybody in the car.
Enough of the ridicule already. Let them mature. China will break a can of whoop ass over many of us in the years to come.

[happy_penguin @ Oct 17th 2008 6:57PM]

No, Mikey may be right. These cars are probably considered fine where they're used. But they would never make it in the US market with the safety regulations and customer wants/needs.

As far as China whooping ass, fine. But I wish they would finance it themselves instead of with western and Japanese manufacturing outsource funds.

[tekd @ Oct 17th 2008 8:35PM]

@happy_penguin:
China would LOVE to finance their own stuff, in fact the law makes it so that they have to have half equity in all the major things over there. The truth is that companies WANT to go outsource to China since they make more money that way, it's rather odd to blame China for having an economy people want to invest in. The foreign companies would love to be ablto have 100% ownership over everything in China like in the old days (pre-communist China when foreigners carved up China and owned pretty much everything valuable-go visit Shanghai sometime and you'll see how all the older buildings look like they're from european cities-because they often are).

Anyways, having gone to China and seen some of the business antics over there I can pretty much explain all the idiocy that occurs pretty simply: people want to cash in on the new capitalist free market-but they've been living under communism and corrupt cronyism for so long that they often have no clue what they're doing, and some people still attempt stupid corrupt crap that will eventually destroy them. Like the melamine in the milk-they still haven't gotten it through their heads that saving a few cents today is friggin' stupid when doing this kind of crap will totally destroy your entire business. And now all the milk companies are going bankrupt because nobody will EVER trust them again. Sooner or later though they'll realize that it makes no sense to pull these antics, because the free market will continue to punish stupid crap like melamine in milk, or lead in paint, or the store I saw trying to sell chapstick for $9 (that's $9 US dollars). The corrupt companies and industries will go bankrupt, and honest companies with quality products will succeed, and stores will realize that selling 10 chapsticks for $1 each is more profitable than selling 0 chapsticks for $9 (they were covered in a layer of dust so thick I think the chapsticks had been sitting around for a decade).

So to sum it up, the free market and capitalism will do the job of punishing all the morons currently ruining China's reputation, and someday instead of corrupt greedy idiots poisoning milk, they'll have corrupt idiots selling mortgage derivatives and tanking the world economy like us.

[Chris Taylor @ Oct 18th 2008 4:19AM]

I do not care how unsafe it is. HELL KEEP THE GOD DAMNED SOLAR PANELS for all I care. I want the 90mile range for $5 grand!!!

THATS What I want. My cummute is 54 miles one way. I need 65-70miles to be safe I can charge at work.

I want this so god damned badly its making me sick!

whats it costs to ship a car from china I can just register it as a home made car.

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 2:27PM]

"Hey, Chad, are you coming with us to happy hour?"

"Yeah, I'll be there at about Sunday O'clock. I've got a 30 hour fillup to look forward to tonight."

[Podaman @ Oct 17th 2008 2:35PM]

"You sure, Chad?"

"Yep! I'll be there, rain or shine! ... oh wait... just shine."

[George @ Oct 17th 2008 2:37PM]

Where do you live? Where I'm from the sun only rises in the morning!

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 3:06PM]

I live in the North Pole, George. The arctic where we have 6 months of daylight.

[BigD145 @ Oct 17th 2008 6:53PM]

Damn. That must be some bar if you're driving 150 kilometers (93.2 miles) to get to it.

[Brian @ Oct 17th 2008 2:32PM]

I'd sell my Crossfire and put down 5,500 for one of these.

Of course, I'd have to be able to charge it off the wall power, too.

[j.pickens @ Oct 17th 2008 2:34PM]

I call B.S. on this one.
IF you angle the panel to the sun.
IF you have an absolutely clear day.
Then, you'll get that conversion efficiency.
Let's call it 15.5%, the mean of the stated efficiency.
Can't tell for sure from the photo, but let's be generous and call it an 8 by 10 foot solar panel.
That's 80 square feet X 100 watts per sq. ft. (really clear "Air Mass 1" solar input) X 0.155 (efficiency fraction) = 124 watts output.

IF you have 8 hours of Air Mass 1 sunlight (very rare, actually), you'll get 8 X 124 Watts X 0.001 Watts/Kilowatt = 0.99 KwH (Kilo Watt Hours).
0.99 KwH per day is simply NOT ENOUGH to drive a car 40km (150 / 30 hours X 8 hours).

No way, Jose.
Do you people have any sense, or do you just reprint whatever bullshit press releases come over the wires?

[krystar @ Oct 17th 2008 3:08PM]

might want to check your math.

80 square feet X 100 watts per sq. ft. X 0.155 = 1240 watts

[SuperQ @ Oct 17th 2008 2:56PM]

So your math is a bit off. Those look like 3 standard 2x1 meter panels ~= 65 sq ft.

65*100*0.155 = 1007.5 W

(8*1007.5)/1000 = 8.06 kWh

It doesn't seem that off that you could get that much travel with sitting for 4+ days of charging. They don't list the kwh of the battery, or the max kw of motor output.

The Think EV has a 17kw motor, and 200km range. I don't remember exactly, but I believe it's between 25 and 30 kWh. If you can get get a more conservative 5kWh per 8 hour day out of 3 panels, 30 hours is about 18kWh. A very light (not US crash worthy) car could do 150km on 18kWh if the top speed isn't very high (say 80km/h)

[The WC @ Oct 17th 2008 10:02PM]

"Do you people have any sense, or do you just reprint whatever bullshit press releases come over the wires?"

As someone once, said, "You can have something done three ways: fast, cheap, or good. Pick two."

Engadget is a blog, and blogs are notorious for having inaccurate information. They don't have standards to uphold, like traditional news sources have. But they have the news here early, they have it for free, and most of the time they make it damn entertaining.

You don't want "bullshit press releases?" Go buy a Wall Street Journal. Maybe, just maybe, they'll pick up this story in three to six months.

[Serge @ Oct 17th 2008 2:36PM]

so as long as you you start with a full charge and drive slower than 15km/hr (9.3mph) you can technically drive non-stop in the sun, and then an additional 150km (93mi) when the sun goes down.

[j.pickens @ Oct 17th 2008 2:40PM]

So Serge,
You're saying that you can drive this car at 9.3 mph on the power of one average lightbulb?
Show me the car that can do this.
This isn't that car.

[Serge @ Oct 17th 2008 2:49PM]

j.pickens,

first of all, i was wrong. engadget changed the post from 15km on 1hr charge to 5km. so now you gotta drive it at 3.1mph.

second of all, you really hate this thing huh? you replied negatively to almost half the comments here.

[bob sakamano @ Oct 17th 2008 2:40PM]

well im american.. whats 150 km????? like 3 miles?

[Mr Man @ Oct 17th 2008 2:47PM]

~93 miles.

[krystar @ Oct 17th 2008 3:11PM]

learn to google. :)

google for "150 km in miles"

150 kilometers = 93.2056788 miles

[schmitty338 @ Oct 17th 2008 2:49PM]

....Your American? Sorry....

[bob sakamano @ Oct 17th 2008 3:14PM]

that was sarcasm

[bob sakamano @ Oct 17th 2008 3:15PM]

actually, more like just being an arrogant american and enjoying it

booyak!

[Tony @ Oct 17th 2008 6:12PM]

"....Your American? Sorry...."

I'm sorry your 3rd grade teacher failed you so miserably.

[Mr. Me Too @ Oct 18th 2008 1:34PM]

"....Your American? Sorry...."

He really means My American.

[Ryan @ Oct 17th 2008 2:40PM]

The reason we can't have something like this in this country is because an SUV would run over and kill everyone in an accident. We have to have all kinds of safety features to make a small car safe on our roads.

[j.pickens @ Oct 17th 2008 2:42PM]

No, the reason we can't have something like this in this country is because it doesn't exist.
Saying it exists doesn't make it so.

[Mario @ Oct 17th 2008 2:44PM]

If I lived somewhere sunny (i.e. not Scotland), I'd totally get one of these.

Even if the figures they quote are a bit unrealistic, as long as you don't need to do many miles per day, and don't have an inferiority complex, this is a great form of transport.

I mean, $5,560? What a bargain!

[JK Rolling @ Oct 17th 2008 2:50PM]

LOL -

do you really think china will try to save the world by producing a vehicle that is zero-emissions?

They produce these junkers because they don't want to pay for GAS. I bet you a new (american) car that this piece of bulldung has parts made of illegally banned materials that would do more harm to the planet than good for your wallet. There's no such thing as helping the environment in china nor are their any design achievements. It's either copying other people's designs or making something like a strap on solar panel that would eject itself when in a 20mph crash killing other innocent bystanders.

If you really want to design something that is ecologically friendly and SAFE for everyone else on the road, don't buy this junker and instead, spend some years in R&D actually DESIGNING something your own THEN after thorough testing, SELL IT. Don't sell this because you know the chinaman next door who is so cheap will certainly buy this junker, only to wreak havoc upon the safety among other automobile drivers!

[Joe Sixpack @ Oct 17th 2008 2:57PM]

USA! USA! USA!

[matt @ Oct 17th 2008 3:34PM]

Mindless xenophobia FTW!

[hahn73 @ Oct 17th 2008 4:01PM]

Do you really think they're going to just stop here and say "Voila! The perfect car!". Of course not. This is an early version and essentially a proof of concept. The concept that an emissions free car CAN be built for a reasonable price. The POINT is that China is investing heavily into developing this type of car. The point is also that the U.S. is not. It is extremely naive and foolish for the U.S. to just dismiss this as a flawed idea. By the time a Chinese company develops a nice looking solar powered car that charges quickly and goes very far on a charge for under $20,000, we will already be too late and forever be playing catch up. Japanese cars were dismissed back in the 60's and 70's too. Now look where the American car companies are compared to the Japanese companies.

[lol @ Oct 17th 2008 6:55PM]

LOL

where are you from ?

Before laughing at China and the Chinamen, ask yourself, what has your OWN country ever achieved ? Sorry, not trying to offend you but if your country is one of those good for nothing countries then I am sorry, you're actually insulting your country more than insulting China.