Zoomi Life

The Chinese company Zhejiang 001 Group has debuted an amazing new product at the 29th Zhejiang International Bicycles and Electric-powered Cars Exhibition last week - a solar-powered electric car capable of going 90 miles on a full charge with a retail price of only $5,560.

The car is nearly identical to China’s popular economy vehicle, the Cherry QQ, which is pictured above. Only ten of the solar cars have been manufactured so far, but more production is planned. Unfortunately, you won’t have much luck finding one outside of China.

The solar panels themselves are not integrated into the electric car, but sit on top of the car in a roof-rack configuration - see the picture below. The car takes about 30 hours to fully charge, but the batteries will charge enough in just one hour in the sun to provide a three-mile trip.

Sheng Gangxiang, an engineer at the Zhejiang 001 Group, told reporters that the vehicles have solar panels on their roofs that turn the sun’s rays into energy to get them going. The car can absorb 95 percent of the solar energy it takes in, however, it can only transform 14 to 17 percent of that into electricity.

We think the low price and the renewable nature of this vehicle will lend it perfectly to impoverished areas that cannot afford gasoline-powered motorized vehicles.

This Post via AutoblogGreen and Gas2.org