Student Group In The Netherlands Creates A Solar Powered Home Car, Here's What It Looks Like!

Home cars are planned to be marketed in the next five years. (photo: youtube screenshot)

JAKARTA – Students at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have developed a solar-powered zero-emission mobile home that can travel solely on solar energy.

As most countries cut back on fossil fuels and invest in sustainable energy, electric vehicles like the Tesla are becoming a popular choice among environmentally conscious. However, most of the electricity still comes from coal, which means solar panels and wind turbines are increasingly being favored as sustainable power sources.

Cars are one of the most significant sources of pollution throughout the industrialized world. An EPA report states that 29 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States in 2019 came from the transportation sector.

Experts around the world agree that air pollution cannot be controlled without drastically reducing automotive emissions, which means vehicles that can run on a sustainable basis are a necessity today. That's where the new zero-emission home car comes in.

Named the 'Stella Vita', this vehicle has a solar panel roof, with additional panels that can be opened when parked. It can also be charged via the mains charging port in an emergency. The vehicle was made by a group of young students called the 'Solar Team Eindhoven', consisting of 22 students from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.

The students specialize in designing solar-powered electric vehicles with the ultimate goal of optimizing range. This home car features a kitchen with fridge, seating area, bed, shower and toilet, all powered by solar panels.

According to the team, the self-contained solar panels generate enough power to drive, shower, watch TV, charge a laptop and make coffee.

Stella Vita is a street legal home, and students even complete 1,800-mile road trips in it, powered solely by the sun. It also has a 60 kilowatt hour lithium-ion battery that can store energy for night trips of up to 600 kilometers.

The vehicle can travel up to 453 miles in 24 hours on a clear day and reach a top speed of 120 kilometers per hour (about 75 miles per hour). The team says it took about a year to design and build the Stella Vita from the ground up, and they hope to bring it to market within the next five years.

While electric camping is nothing new, a completely self-contained, solar-powered mobile home is always welcome. As The Guardian points out, the university has previously created several solar-powered vehicles as part of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge competition. In fact they won more than once with the standard five-seater design.

However, for this year's competition, team coordinator Dr. Carlo van der Weijer wanted students to design a mobile home because he felt it might be more commercially marketable, especially for environmentally conscious camping enthusiasts.