How difficult would it be to convert an ordinary gasoline automobile to solar powered? I'm talking expense, time, parts, etc. Bear in mind, I am neither an engineer nor an auto-mechanic. Just a guy with a head on his shoulders, and 2 good hands.

I don't know how difficult you might find it, but here is a project some college students have attempted along those lines CLICK HERE

Omega Raven: 07/06/2002

You are facing some stiff competition in the Solar Powered Car field. Several Universities throughout the WORLD are working on these type cars.

Unless you have plenty of bucks I would leave this to the so-called experts. However, if you feel up to the challenge go for it.

These are a few of the colleges working in this area besides the one that Frankvan mentioned:

http://www.umich.edu/sunseeker/

http://www.sanford.edu/GROUP/SSCP/index.htm

http://hyperserver.engrg.uwo.ca/sunstang/

Anyone of these would/may give you ideas as to how to proceed.

If you want others type:

Solar Powered Cars

In your address line & then click GO.



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[This message was edited by donaldekliros on 07-06-02 at 05:47 AM.]

[This message was edited by MiranndaGrey on 07-20-02 at 12:34 PM.]

Omega:
the two other posts are reffering to cars that have been built from scratch, instead of using an existing auto instead.

It would be good to check out those sites to get an idea of how much the solar pannels cost, and how to install them and wire them to the batteries.

But to convert a normal car to solar you are going to have to worry about a lot more than that.
Those cars are designed to be lightweight and aerodynamyic, and that is why the sun can propell them.
If you are talking about only solar power, you are going to need a LOT of panels to get regular car moving, because of its heavy weight and high drag coefficient.

A more feasable idea would be to use the solar pannels as a suppliment, for example, my friend at college just completed a hybrid electric vehicle: they took a Ford Explorer, took out the engine, and replaced it with a turbocharged mazda miata engine, and an electric engine.

The smaller miata engine allowed extra room under the hood to put the electric engine in too.
You could take that design a step further, and add the solar panels to suppliment the electric half of the power, and add to the effieciency of the engine.

This may not be the easiest thing to do, but you seem determined, and i am sure you could manage it. It would probably take a long time to complete though, if you were the only one working on it.

if you have any specific questions just let me know, i can talk to my friend who built the Explorer, or i also have some experience myself, from building a solar-electric vehicle in High School

Hope this helps
-Chris

Bogus mileage claims for hybrid vehicles
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