Dutch students build solar power motorhome

It has a top speed of 120kmh and toured Europe last year, travelling from Eindhoven through Brussels, Paris, Bordeaux, Madrid, and finally Tarifa.

Solar Team Eindhoven – the brainboxes who built Stella Vita – consists of 22 students who worked for 18 months to bring this invention to life, finishing in 2021. They operated independently from the university itself but have previously won awards for similar solar-based work.

For safety, the motorhome comes packed in with a charging port just in case the sun refuses to come out. It provides real-time data on energy consumption too, which means drivers can make informed decisions on how they use electricity without draining the battery in the middle of a motorway.

Stella Vita is a little longer than your average car, measuring a full 7.2 metres, and does not include power steering or assisted braking. You’ll need to be an expert behind the wheel in tight spaces or winding roads, so this may not be the most ideal purchase if you’re fresh off your driving test.

Still, it’s an impressive, futuristic invention that shows the potential of electric vehicles if our policy makers and investors begin to fully back cleaner cars. We’ve the technology and the knowledge, now it’s just about drive to make things happen. Pardon the pun.

We’ll need to make the switch sooner or later. It’s just a question of when.