How can you make a car run on solar power and how does that work?

Question

What would you have to do to a car to modify it to run on solar power, what parts would you need and is there a way to use the engine that is already in the car? also how would it work, would you only be able to go short distances and then have to stop and wait for it to recharge or would it keep running as long as the sun was out?

thanks

no stupid answers (like IDK) please (you will be reported)

Answer 1

All "solar powered" cars are electric vehicles with solar panels to recharge the batteries.  There isn't enough surface area on a car to get enough solar charge to give you any kind of practical range, so the better answer if to have a lot of solar panels on the roof of your house, and recharge your electric vehicle while parked at home.  Good EVs are few and far between right now, but more will be coming in a few years.

This site gives some info about how you can do it:

http://www.evnut.com/solar.htm

There are quite a few of us out there driving our solar charged EVs around producing no pollution and getting free power.  You do have to spend some real money up front to buy the solar panels and EV.

Answer 2

Current solar technology only allows lightest weighted vehicles to run on solar energy. That is why you seeing funny cariages with solar cell wings.

Answer 3

You can't.  Solar cars are essentially science fiction, though if you make an electric bike, enclose it in a shroud covered with solar batteries, and install a very tricky battery you can make a sort of vehicle that'll run for a while after it has been charged up for several hours in the hot sun on a clear day.  

If you've read anything else, they were lying to you (and quite probably to themselves as well.)  There are no solar panels capable of producing anything like the amount of power that's necessary to run a conventional motor vehicle.  

Here's the math: one horsepower equals 746 watts.  So my Geo Metro's giant 50 horsepower engine (that comes out to 37 kilowatts) produces three or four times the power that our house takes when everything is on at once, and that solar-powered houses are exceedingly rare.

Answer 4

I hope this will help you a bit.

Answer 5

A car run on solar power is an electric car hooked up to solar panels to charge.  The actor Ed Begley Jr.  has an electric car and he charges it from the solar panels on his roof.  You need a lot of solar panels to do this but it is very possible, because there are solar panels that can store large amounts of energy by being hooked up to batteries.