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Solartaxi World Tour Coming to US and Canada
5 June 2008
Swiss adventurer Louis Palmer, who is driving around the world in his three-wheeled, solar-powered Solartaxi EV (earlier post), will be arriving in North America at the end of June. The round-the world tour started in Lucerne, Switzerland, in July 2007, and will finish there later this year after a swing through through Maroc and Western Europe.
The Solartaxi is an electric trike (two wheels up front, one in the rear) with a five-meter solar trailer covered with 6 m2 of solar cells generating 850W. The car and the trailer each have a 14 kWh Zebra (sodium nickel chloride) battery pack. If Solartaxi is driving slowly, the trailer also charges the battery, but on normal driving, the solar power goes directly to the motor.
With fully grid-charged batteries and a clear, sunny day, the Solartaxi has a range of 400 km; without the sun, a range of 300 km; without the trailer, 200km; and without an overnight grid-charge, about 100 km from the power of the trailer alone.
To make up the difference between consumption and power generated by the trailer, the Solartaxi grid-charges, and the Solartaxi team offsets electricity consumed by feeding power generated by a 6,000 kWh/year stationary solar power system on a rooftop in Berne, Switzerland, into the grid.
The Solartaxi uses a Servax motor, and the power electronics come from Rockwell and AERL in Australia.
Maximum speed of the Solartaxi is 90 kph (56 mph). The lightweight vehicle (500 kg + 250 kg for the trailer) consumes 8 kWh/100 km (equivalent of 0.8 l petrol / 100 km).
So far, Solartaxi, which is currently in South Korea after traversing China, has covered 26 countries and 32,000 km. By the end, after 18 months of driving, it will be at least 40 countries and 45,000 km.
The Solartaxi team is looking for help in setting up events or presentations on its North American and Western European tour. They are planning to travel a route between Vancouver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, New York and Washington D.C. Anyone with interest can send an email to berlin@solartaxi.com or visit www.solartaxi.com/mission/join-invite/.
June 5, 2008 in Electric (Battery), Solar | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: floatplane99 | June 05, 2008 at 05:11 PM
Correction: The battery manufacturer's web-site (http://www.mes-dea.ch/) says "They use salt and nickel for electrode materials with a ceramic electrolyte."
Posted by: floatplane99 | June 05, 2008 at 05:20 PM
Zebra spec sheet shows energy density at: 181 Wh/L; specific energy of 119 Wh/Kg (w/o Battery Mngmt Intfc). Apparently the battery is pre-heated over 24 hours to > 270°C.
The tour through North America should attract lots of attention for solar and the Zebra batteries.
http://donau.kicms.de/cebi/easyCMS/FileManager/Files/MES-DEA/batteries/Zebra_Z5.pdf
Posted by: gr | June 06, 2008 at 08:24 AM
And what's the carbon footprint of flying it across the Atlantic?
Posted by: LiveFreeOrDie | June 07, 2008 at 06:14 PM
The carbon neutrality of the venture "offsets" the big footprint in jet travel. So you can have your cake and frosting too!
Posted by: diddie | June 08, 2008 at 06:55 AM
SolarTaxi is basically an Electric vehicle taxi, in short EvTaxi or TaxiEv. As PlugInFleets proliferate we should expect wide acceptance of EvTaxi/TaxiEv especially with gas price reaching 5$/gal.
EvTaxi.com is an EvDomain (internet real estate)of great value indeed as the trend catches on......
Posted by: Y Ev | June 11, 2008 at 12:45 AM
Today I was able to meet the Solartaxi and get a ride in it at a media event in Hamilton Ontario.
Demonstrating that the electric car technology and batteries are available is a huge step forward.
So far, the only mechanical problems this car has encountered were due to metal fatigue of aluminum structural members.
Those in Toronto will now be able to see this car in action.
Posted by: John Taylor | August 25, 2008 at 01:28 AM
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Interesting battery technology is listed on the Solartaxi web site. It uses salt (not saltwater) as an electrolyte at 270-350 degrees Celsius inside a vacuum flask. It appears to have a better energy density than Li-ion and sounds easy to recycle after 1000 charge cycles (should be good for 2-3 years in a BEV or PHEV).