Sarasota company selling solar-powered cars (golf carts)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.wwsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=8413551

Sarasota company selling solar-powered cars

Updated: June 2, 2008 05:22 PM

SARASOTA - There's a new way to get around town...and the best part: you won't need to stop at the gas station. A Suncoast company has designed a vehicle that is powered by something the Sunshine State has plenty of...sun.

People are looking for ways to avoid those high gas prices, and the sun doesn't cost $4 a gallon. So a Sarasota car maker is taking advantage of that, and now has a vehicle so hot, it's getting national attention.

At first glance they look like golf carts, but it's what's up top that makes them different. It is a solar electric hybrid vehicle. The only one of its kind in the world," says Ken Chester of Cruise Car, Inc.

It's powered by the sun and powerful. "This can run all day until about 6:30-7:00 at night."

...

http://www.cruisecarinc.com/

[Kutjara]

1. "This can run all day until about 6:30-7:00 at night."

By which time, everyone in Sarasota is in bed.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. It reminds me of an early episode of "Eureka" on the SciFi channel

Our hero, the fish-out-of-water, borrows a car, which he is told to have back before night. (Naturally, he doesn't, and it stops running.)

[robinlynne]

6. That means it can run for 10-12 hours. It can do the same thing at night.

just in case you didn't get that.

[Kutjara]

10. Actually, it can't.

The car is basically a modified golf cart with a solar panel. The panel is used to charge the car's battery, which can normally run for three or four hours between charges (the Cruise Car spokesman himself says in the article that the reason he invented the car was because his electric golf buggy used to run out of juice on the 16th hole of the golf course). The solar panels trickle charge the battery, extending its range to a claimed "10-12 hours." Once the sun goes down, however, all you've got is a golf cart.

So, if the car is fully recharged at sunset, you can expect to get three or four hours out of it at night. If it's been used heavily during the day, though, it will not last long in the dark.

By your interpretation, the car can be driven around the clock with no need to ever recharge the batteries, except via the solar panel. A car that can do that would truly be a wonder, but the technology just doesn't exist yet.

Anyway, my comment was more about what a sleepy town Sarasota is than a dig at the car.

[evlbstrd]

2. Should be great

during midwestern winters.

[liberal N proud]

3. If I lived in Florida in a gated community

Where everything was within the community, I would consider it.
I don't think I would survive my first trip in the Cleveland area. These drivers would run it down just for fun

[Dr.Phool]

4. It would fall into a pothole in Cleveland

And never be seen again.

[liberal N proud]

7. Oh how true that is

Of course the cities are never responsible for the damage those holes cause

[robinlynne]

8. right on! right on! right on!

make it bigger, and freeway drivable and we LAers are ready!

[Qutzupalotl]

9. Solar roofs should be used on all electric cars

for additional power or radio/lights/fan.

Most people drive to work and park outside all day. It could be recharging!

[TexasBushwhacker]

11. A step in the right direction ....

but they're still just golf carts. They aren't street legal without seat belts and such, and the website doesn't say how much making them street legal costs. The solar panel assembly and battery alone is $3300. A new electric golf cart is about $5K or more. So how much are people going to pay for a vehicle that goes 20 mph, even if it is solar?