Welcome The Next-Gen Electric Car, One That Recharges Itself Through Solar Energy

As the world shifts towards electric-powered vehicles, there is a looming question that haunts each and every auto maker, which is ‘how to tackle the range limitations of the vehicles?’ Part of the reason for this are the long time duration required to charge the batteries of EVs. So naturally, alternatives to the ‘plug and charge’ concept have taken the centre stage of research in the field.

‘Lightyear’ is a startup currently in the process of coming up with the first prototype of an electric car that recharges through solar cells embedded on its roof. Do not mistake it for the only source of recharging the car though. It does come with the conventional charging plug, so you still can charge the car at a charging station or at your home.

LIGHTYEAR

The solar cells are there to eliminate the dependence on such charging stations though. Lex Hoefsloot, CEO of Lightyear began developing the car’s concept while he was a student at the Eindhoven University of Technology. By the time he had already won the World Solar Challenge in 2013 and in 2015 as a part of a team that developed car capable of driving around 1000 miles on a single charge.

Source: indiatimes