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Automotive innovators are proving that low-weight, high-efficiency cars can go the distance. But can they can make it in the marketplace?
If anyone thinks that lightweight cars can't cover long stretches of the road, the solar-powered XOF1 electric car should convince them how wrong they are. Back in 2008, the spacey-looking car's creator and driver, Marcelo da Luz, steered the XOF1 (which stands for "Power of One") from Buffalo, N.Y., to the Canadian Arctic, then down to California, then over to Florida, then back up to Canada and the Arctic again.
In April, the 470-pound XOF1 became the first all-solar car to travel Canada's Ice Highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk in the high Arctic, as documented in this amazing CBC News documentary. Da Luz now holds the world distance record for solar-powered automobile travel, racking up 22,436 miles (36,220 kilometers) on the XOF1.
Along the way, he's been pulled over 26 times - sometimes just because troopers wanted to take his picture, and one time because somebody told police in Palmer, Alaska, that a UFO was spotted traveling down the road. "They checked to make sure I'm not an alien," da Luz, who was born in Brazil and lives in Toronto, told me today. "Well, yes I am, but just because I'm not from the U.S."
Da Luz is visiting Seattle this weekend to talk about his solar-powered odyssey at the Shoreline Solar Project's annual Solarfest.
Why is a former flight attendant mortgaging his house and taking out loans to hit the road in a freaky flying-saucer car? It all began in 1987 when he heard about the Solar Challenge for sun-powered cars in Australia. "I thought, 'That's the future - I want to build a car and compete in that race.'" He put that thought on hold for 12 years, but eventually "the pain of not following the dream became unbearable," he said.
He said it took an estimated 50,000 hours of volunteer labor to build the car from polyurethane foam and fiberglass, cover it with 893 solar cells and get it on the road. The solar array's maximum output is about 900 watts. "With less energy than a toaster, I can charge the batteries and drive the car," da Luz said. The maximum range for night driving is 120 miles, but eventually the sun is going to have to shine. Da Luz's car has no provision for plug-in charging.
"On my worst days I drove for 4 miles ... or not at all," he said.
Now da Luz is hustling to raise the money for his biggest challenge yet. "If I find enough sponsors, I will drive the car from the Arctic to the tip of South America," he said. But as far as he's concerned, making money is not the point.
"The whole idea with the car is to promote the use of clean, renewable energy," da Luz told me. "Any electric car can be covered with solar cells. Maybe they will generate only 10, 15, 20 percent of the power needed for the car. But that's 10, 15, 20 percent less from the environment, and from your pocketbook."
Making cars lightweight is one of the leading strategies for making them more energy-efficient. At least that's the approach taken with the XOF1 solar car, as well as with the Very Light Cars being fielded in the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize by the Virginia-based Edison2 team. Unlike de Luz, however, the engineers and entrepreneurs behind Edison2 are counting on making money. Maybe lots of money.
David Imbaratto / Stellar Exploration for Planetary Society
One of Edison2's four-seat mainstream cars takes to the track during the Knockout phase of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize. The car is a front-runner for the competition's $5 million top prize.
Edison2 has two experimental cars in the running for the contest's top prize of $5 million - in fact, they're the only cars that haven't been eliminated in the competition for four-seat mainstream vehicles. The team also has a two-seater in competition for one of the two $2.5 million prizes being offered for alternative vehicles.
To win the $5 million, at least one of Edison2's ethanol-burning cars will have to get the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon of gasoline (MPGe) in a 200-mile drive while satisfying all the safety and emission requirements for a marketable vehicle. To win the $2.5 million, the two-seater would have to get the same mileage but meet a less stringent range requirement of 100 miles. And by the way, it would have to beat out all the other competitors in its class.
During last month's X Prize Knockout round, one of the Edison2 mainstream cars actually exceeded the 100 MPGe mark, but after penalties were assessed for irregularities in the car's operation, the score was barely good enough to make the cutoff. The final round begins next week at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., and the stakes couldn't be higher.
"We feel good about it," David Brown, director of communications for the Edison2 team, told me today. "But we know it's a challenge and we're right on the edge. The truth is, we need to do it without penalties, and that's our anticipation."
Brown said he and his teammates are keeping its focus on the finals, "because that's important to us," but they can't help but think as well about what will happen after the X Prize.
"One of the lessons of the X Prize is that you're not going to get dramatic changes in fuel efficiency by modifying an existing car," he said.
Edison2's Very Light Cars show that low-mass vehicles can produce dramatic improvements in energy efficiency while still providing a safe, sure ride on the racetrack or on the highway. The Very Light Cars have a curb weight of less than 800 pounds - which is a third of the weight of a Mini Cooper, or half the weight of a Smart Car. "Moving toward lightweight cars, we feel strongly, is in this country's future," Brown said.
The way Edison2 sees it, the key to success isn't necessarily so much about the power source - whether it's ethanol, or diesel, or plug-in electric power, or good old gasoline. It's more about the aerodynamics and the materials that serve as the platform for the power source.
"We chose a path for the X Prize, and that path involved an internal combustion engine," Brown said. "But we actually feel what's significant about this car is the platform, and we're looking forward to exploring that platform with all the sources of power available to us. We believe it's the direction where we need to go."
Edison2's innovators may be heading in that direction, but they realize they can't create the car of the future all by themselves.
"We see ourselves developing collaborations with other companies to see these ideas go into production," Brown said. "There are all sorts of places where we took a fork in the road, but the other fork had a lot of promise, too. We feel as if there's a part of all this that ends with the X Prize - but there's also a part that starts with the end of the X Prize."
Is there a lightweight car in your future? Or do you need a heavier chassis to feel protected? Feel free to "weigh" in with your comments below.
Update for 9:10 p.m. ET: XOF1's Marcelo da Luz responded to some questions from one of my Facebook friends, Tony Rusi, and was kind enough to send me a copy of his replies. Here's the edited Q&A:
Tony Rusi: After all your experience with solar-electric cars, do you feel as if your design would be practical if mass-produced today?
Marcelo da Luz: Any electric vehicle could be covered in solar cells, even if the cells only generate 50 percent, 30 percent or 10 percent of charging due to weather and short winter days. That is 50 percent, 30 percent or 10 percent less on the environment and less on our pockets.
XOF1 was designed and built for efficiency, not as a practical vehicle to be driven every day. However, much of its technology and design can be transferred to a future vehicle design to accommodate a more practical application. For example, passenger and luggage.
Q: Do you have any ballpark idea of how much they would cost, if mass-produced by a big auto company that was making hundreds of thousands of them a year?
A: The popular Tata car is set to sell in India for about $2,500. The research and development effort cost them millions. My uneducated guess would be initially be $50,000 to $60,000, dropping down to $20,000 to $30,000 a few years later. I don't have experience with large-scale manufacturing to give an educated guess on the cost of producing a vehicle. XOF1 cost 50,000 man-hours, design, R&D, testing, etc... The reduction of cost would be a direct result of the volume being produced.
Q: Have you ever been approached by anyone from Tesla, Toyota or Nissan about mass-producing your vehicle?
A: No. I would welcome the opportunity to work with anyone interest to design XOF2. The next generation of XOF1.
Q: Did you feel safe in regular car traffic and on the freeway in the U.S. in your solar car?
A: I felt very safe. XOF1 is made out of Polyurethane foam (6-pound-per-cubic-feet density) covered in fiberglass, reinforced with carbon fiber. Foam has incredible absorbing properties in case of impact.
Q: You must be quite a spectacle on the road! Do the police stop you often because you are so novel? Or do they stop you because you create a traffic delay? And is the novelty factor wearing off at all with more electrics on the road all the time?
A: Yes, I have been pulled over by the police 26 times. In Palmer, Alaska, someone called 911 about an UFO on the road. In Washington, D.C., I got pulled over by the Secret Service on one day and a SWAT team the next day. It is not easy being green :-)
Q: Do you feel that an electric bike can be made into a solar-electric bike? Would you feel safer on a good dedicated bike trail versus a U.S. freeway?
A: Absolutely. Any electric vehicle including e-bikes could take advantage of charging with sunlight. In the case of an e-bike, a deployable panel might be more practical to use while the e-bike is stationary. It could also take advantage of small-scale wind generation while stationary. Any vehicle on a freeway should be able to sustain the minimum speed of the highway. Electric motorcycles are capable of 100 mph+. An e-bike with a 500-watt motor can't get over 20 mph, in which case they should only be allowed where human-powered bikes are.
Q: Could your solar car fairing be made to "tilt up" 90 degrees so that you could quickly get your vehicle between the closely spaced pylons that keep most motorized vehicles off of bike trails in the USA?
A: Yes, it could. However, there is always a snowball effect. Adding complexity to the design could translate in efficiency losses.
Q: I have heard that CIGS thin-film solar cells are getting near a dollar a watt. Do you know of anyone building a solar cars with those types of solar cells?
A: Due to the limited about of space to harvest solar energy, most solar vehicles use the most efficient solar cells they can get. I am not aware of anyone using thin film on a vehicle. However, for stationary applications it is a great way to reduce cost. Roofs and ports can be covered by cheap panels to charge electric vehicles.
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Is this REALLY on the main Headline page on MSNBC? Guess there is no government corruption, voter intimidation or fraud going on in our country. I feel so much better now.
Being MSNBC there is only so much bad news you can report on when party you are in the tank for control the WH and Congress. Something to break up the monotony here is a good thing....at least for the editors.
lol
Glad to make you feel better for a few hours on a Friday night. ... We will shortly return you to your regularly scheduled government corruption and fraud. ;-)
Thanks Democrats!!! November can't come soon enough!
What a great idea. Why is it taking so damn long to mainstream these cars?
Maybe because only a very small part of the population actually wants these wastes of MONEY. The Toyota Prius, the worlds best selling car of it's kind is a LOSER in many ways, not the least of which is the losing of money. Government subsidies anyone, gee can't wait for more of those to take MORE of my money and yours to MAKE up the difference.
Great ideas always start out as a waste of money. What are your suggestions for the future of transportation?
The Toyota Prius has sold a million units in the last ten years with almost all of them without government subsidy. Toyota is making good money on these vehicles and their owners are saving on gasoline. At 50 mpg, seating for 5, and a hatchback design that swallows up luggage like no one's business, the LOSER are perhaps all the other cars on the road.
Thats right Jack because you know its a complete waste of time to try to harness the Sun's free energy, hate to break it to you but you dont know Jack. To put things into perspective for you. The amount of energy hitting the earth from the Sun in one second, yes that is in one second is more energy then we have used in the history of humanity using energy.
So making electic cars is the future, combustion engines are on life support by the oil companies, and our govt, all it will take is for the public to catch on and electric vehicles will become cheap.
Because this type of car really isn't practical for the mainstream - one cramped seat, no A/C, no luggage space, limited speed and acceleration - and extremely expensive, thanks to the high cost of solar cells.
Covering a car with solar cells would provide a modest amount of power, less than 10% of power requirements, and would add thousands to the cost. Now some cars are using smaller solar panels to power a cooling fan, a more modest and practical use, but we won't see solar covered cars go mainstream until the price of solar cells drops dramatically.
For now, "mainstream" fuel economy improvements means reducing weight and aerodynamic drag, hybrids, and plug-in battery cars and plug-in hybrids.
if we would get on the stick and got the nuc energy plants back on line, this country could come out from behind the cloud of carbons being thrown into the atmosphere each year. wake up America
The two biggest issues I see with ultralight cars are how they fare in a crash, and how well they hold up to the pounding of real world roads.
In a crash, what harms occupants is the suddenness of deceleration, impact with internal car structure, crush injury from collapsing structure, and penetration injuries from intrusions into the passenger compartment. Physics tells us that in a crash a light object stops quicker than a heavier object. So the impact effects of a crash are worse on the occupants of a light vehicle compared to a heavy vehicle, all other factors equal. Of course all other factors are rarely equal. In fact since light vehicles generally are less able to resist impact forces, things are generally much worse for occupants of the light vehicle.
Durability is affected by mass too. Again as a general rule, heavier structures are stronger and more durable than light structures. They are generally much cheaper too for equivalent durability. This has been one of the major problems of flying cars. If they are made light enough to fly, they aren't durable enough to take the pounding of driving on the road.
Use of exotic materials such as carbon fiber and ceramic matrix composites, and use of advanced space frame structural designs, can help with these issues, though with a heavy impact on vehicle cost. But we must remember that improved designs can benefit heavier vehicles using more conventional and lower cost materials too, so the comparative advantage of the heavier vehicle is likely to remain.
I wonder if there'd be any value in creating "lightways" for lighterweight vehicles ... or would some folks see that as an effort to pry their Hummers from their cold dead hands. It seems as if the idea of next-generation, super-efficient cars is really, really politicized for some of the commenters here.
As for durability, da Luz's experience is that his car has undergone less wear and tear than usual because it's so lightweight. He says his tires are still like new. But as you can see from the video of his Arctic drive, the car rides kinda rough over the cracks in the ice.
I hear what you are saying about weight and durability, however the 3000 pound typical car weight is probably not optimized. For myself, I travel to work in either a 40 lbs bicycle or a 2400 lbs Toyota Corolla. I think there is some room for a middle ground.
I agree that there is room for improvement. Again talking in general, cars today are heavier than equivalent models in the 1960s. The manufacturers claim that's due to emissions and safety requirements imposed on them, but I don't entirely buy that excuse. I believe most cars today could be lightened by 500 to 1,000 pounds without compromising emissions or safety, but it would require some changes to government regulations.
With respect to Alan's suggestion of segregating ultralight vehicles from normal size ones, there is some merit to that, but understand that the ultralight has the same safety deficits in a barrier crash as it has with respect to a crash with another vehicle. You can't eliminate all fixed barriers, so the ultralight remains more dangerous.
Now realize that the ultralight concept isn't anything new. Motorcycles are ultralights which have been around since the invention of the automobile. They do generally get better fuel mileage than conventional cars. But there can be no doubt that motorcycles are more dangerous, and it is an extremely rare motorcycle that survives 100,000 miles without need for major repairs.
As a motorcyclist myself, I can appreciate the advantages of ultralight vehicles. But I am also acutely aware of their drawbacks. People have to understand that we are unlikely to see our passenger transportation system revolutionized by ultralights. At best they will be niche vehicles for enthusiasts.
Edison2 comes from racing. Innovations that allow a Le Mans car to crash at high speed and the driver walk away are designed into the Very Light Car, such as: a chassis in the shape of a diamond, instead of a rectangle, to deflect rather than engage in a collision, and collapsible space not available in current cars, resulting from having the wheels outside of the frame. Also, active safety, ie, collision avoidance through short stopping distance and superior handling, is an overlooked component of safety. Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article a few years ago discussed the higher rate of driver death in SUV's, compared to some compacts, due to an increased chance of collision.
A next step for Edison2 is further researching, including crash-testing, safety in low-mass vehicles.
Finally, although Edison2 uses a carbon body for the X Prize we plan an aluminum skin in production. Low mass and mainstream materials will result in an affordable (under $20k) price.
After hearing from David Brown (Edison 2) my optimism is bouyed, but I would still want to see them go through rigorous crash testing. I assume most of these vehicles are 1 of a kind, custom built and I would have more piece of mind when they build a dozen more and crash them on purpose to make sure they can hold up. That being said I think that the different technologies they've used have great potential if integrated into existing vehicles in the mid term and becoming a basis for highly efficient vehicles of the future.
Well, there are efforts underway to develop special guideways that would automate long distance vehicle travel and provide electric power, with the vehicles able to leave the guideways and travel on regular roads for the rest of the trip. It is called "Dual Mode" for that guideway/roadway ability.
Now, there are several different "dual mode" proposals, some able to take any properly equipped EV including big rig semi-trucks, while others are restricted to smaller lighter personal vehicles only. Light weight dual mode guideways do have an advantage in efficiency and lower construction cost, but it also suffers from a limit on its versatility and usefulness. For an overview, see:
http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/dualmode.htm
Perhaps everyone should drive stick, because automatics are just "floor and forget" and everyone gets up to speed unrepentantly.
No thanks, I had driven stick shift for years and found it a hassle. I much prefer my Prius, it gets better fuel economy than any stick shift ever could and is much more enjoyable to drive.
Hybrid Synergy Drive works much better than the old fashioned type of automatic transmission, with smooth acceleration, no jerkiness, no hesitation at stoplights, no unexpected stalling, better reliability, and of course far better fuel economy.
stupid article,dumb dumb, democrats need to move the hell out of this country and go to venezula
Nothing in that article is about politics, but some folks insist on posting political comments anyway.
But I find it so amusing that someone like john-295904 apparently can't stand the thought of democracy or anyone voting that might disagree with him, and would much rather live in a single party totalitarian state! It's ironic that Venezuela is much closer to his "single party state" ideal than the USA is.
That pic is awesome, I bet a lot of calls have been made about a ufo on the road. "eventually the sun is going to have to shine"....a good motto to live by, a few bosses may not like it though....the design sure looks aerodynamic enough!!!....my question to him would be...so, what is the longest youve been airborn so far???....which brings up a good point, RIGHT THERE IS THE GEORGE JETSON FLYING CAR WE WERE PROMISED WOULD BE HERE BY NOW!!!...I bet he worked like heck to get the car light as possible, then looked around to add a little weight to it....even big caddies on the interstates get rocked about a bit when 18 wheelers tap down on the go pedal.....this guy deserves a deal, not a ripoff, maybe some campus like ms could licence a bunch with wayport solar charging stations and let people drive them around campus, sort of like penn state or amsterdam does with regular bicycles..in the meantime, enlarge it a bit, fill pockets with helium, mount a hoover jet below it and forget about friction.....I don't mind offering up some free ideas if he can use them, on the other hand I hate to see the big co.s steal his work on anyone elses.....nice idea to break up the monotony, if the dems ain't slippin in it maybe the republicans are misbehavin....maybe the green party got some dirt to share...let's put them in the WH so we can laugh at them a while......
In ten or twenty years we might be on a fuel powered car that is safe to be around, to power a car big enough to be safe, and be able to stand the wear and tear from being beat about on your country roads and get gazillion miles to the gallon. In fact be fueled at the factory and never needing fueling agin, zounds, sounds like nuke power to me. Now that sounds like something I'd like, finding my car in the dark, just look for the glow. I write in just, but they are folks working on this rite now.
All we need is a lightweight, durable vehicle that seats four adults plus luggage, can travel at reasonable highway speeds, has music, heat and air conditioing, will travel 300 miles plus on a charge and costs less than $10,000. brand new, including all taxes, documentation, and dealer fees. Out the door for $10,000.
Should also include a decent warranty package for all that money. These could be built cheaply if we used all the illegal aliens equiped with impact wrenches, screwdrivers, etc.
Has anyone mentioned that "Da Luz" means "of light", as in "sunlight"?
John, you wouldn't by any chance be BP CEO Tony Hayward?
Hi Alan,
We run a company called Storm Preparation & Recovery Services. I have an H1, it's used for emergency situations and pretty much a lawn ornament otherwise. I have put it in deep water, salt water included and you can't do that with one of these cars. There will always need to be different types of vehicles. Whether a manufacturer can get over the weight and size issue and come up with a solar and electric truck will be interesting to see.
I have trained in Police, Fire and Navy and can honestly say I would rather take the heat and ride in an H1 or Hummer than ride in a car. I would love to see some type of combined solar, battery to offset the fuel usage, but have yet to hear anyone come forward with an idea. The gearing on this truck is like driving a tractor, not very fast at all and I believe a Ford Escort could win hands down on a start at a traffic light.
I have to share some laughter though........ For the occasional time that I actually did use my truck.......I was at the Norfolk Airport in Virginia waiting to pick up my brother when the airport police stopped by to check the H1 truck out..... Um, he was peddling a bicycle.... not that there's anything wrong with that and I could see budget cuts in there and all :) Well, I had to chuckle especially when he asked if I wanted to trade (he was definitively flirting with me), but I think somewhere in there adjusting himself on the seat if you catch my drift, I think it was a little uncomfortable to say the least! I answered that we evened out the whole environmental thing - by him not using gas and me using a little more.... well, it was funny at the time
I agree that there will always be a need for alternative vehicles. I work for the Oilsands in northern Alberta and 75% of the vehicles on the road are 1 ton pickups. Moreover all of the heavy equipment used in the mining industry runs on diesel. Think of a 3 story house (30 feet tall and weighs 700 tonnes) and driving that around, the tires are twice my height. They are powered by a large diesel engine that runs 4 elecrtic motors, one for each wheel. The electric motors are about the size of a smart car. I think that electric cars are needed to replace most of the daily drivers which would cut alot of emisions, it would also leave more oil available for all of the plastic and rubber that we use everyday. But there will always be a call for gas and diesel at an industrial level (you can't set up a welding rig on a smart car). And if it can't stand up to a Canadian winter then I'll have to keep my truck for now.
Ayrton Senna did not benefit from the "safe" technology that Mr. Brown speaks of. How would one of the VLC's take a hit from a 1500lb Harley in a T Bone intersection crash? The fenders or wheels would not deflect that. Anyone that has done research on the x prize events knows that the Yamaha 250 cc engine has cold start problems and is likely to overheat. This has happened in the April and June events. How much water was brought to the vehicle while on the track last June? Heard there was a 55 gal barrel nearby acting as the radiator reserve reservoir. Could anyone in good conscience buy something like that and take a trip to the mountains with the family and luggage? No heavy trip for the Very Lightweight Car
Two issues... the materials being used to create these cars are still highly expensive. That not only means the materials themselves, but also translates into the manufacturing costs, and the repair costs. Carbon Fibre does not dent, it deforms then shatters upon impact depending on how it is incorporated into the vehicle.
Second, the low weight of the car, depending on the overall aerodynamics, could be an issue in high-wind conditions, including side winds from large tractor-trailers running alongside.
His accomplishment is amazing, but in the same way as someone crossing the ocean in a rowboat or flying a hot air balloon around the world - interesting and impressive, but not practical for the rest of us.
His solar car is too restricted for practical use - one cramped seat, no luggage space, no A/C, no heat, limited acceleration. As for covering other types of cars with solar cells, sorry, but considering size and efficiency it would get less than 10% of power required for a NEV, and closer to 2% for a freeway capable EV. For that modest gain, you'd pay a very high price. Problem is, on a car solar cells would frequently get shaded and would rarely face the sun directly, so power output would be reduced - not good, considering the high price. Much better to put them on an unshaded rooftop facing the sun direct to get the maximum energy for the cost paid.
Now if the cost of solar cells could be reduced considerably, about 1/10th current costx, the situation would be different and solar covered cars would be practical - and solar roofs would be standard on new buildings.
Try and fail? This electric, solar powerd car is an achievement in the development of solar powerd vehicles. Not too many people hock everything & take up a project of this size without the prospect of personal gain. What we need to understand is where this light weight, renewable energy transportation is of the most use in the near future! Our crouded & polut'ed citys & urban areas is where we should focus our time & energy on. It is where this type of vehicle is desperatly needed. Adding solar cells to conventional vehicles would have to be 50% more effecient to be of any real use.
Nice weird looking car! I drive a mid-size pickup truck as I can no longer afford to drive it AND a small car --- mainly due to excess INS premiums.......I mean I can't drive 'em both at the same time!
I kept the truck 'cause it can take me to work, which for me isn't far, AND I can carry a few sheets of plywood or drywall or some 2x4s --- a lot to ask of a small car, so the truck wins! It passes it's emission test ridiculously well, too! So well it makes me wonder why I need to test it at all, but the Ministry of Transport needs the money, I suppose!