New Cars Too Expensive? This Solar-powered EV Will Cost $6,250

upstart writes:

Squad says in sunny climes like Las Vegas you may never need to charge it:

It's that time of year when the CES email spam goes into overdrive. I won't be on the ground in Las Vegas in 2023 for the gigantic consumer tech trade show, but one pitch almost-well, ok, partly-makes me regret that, because it seems like an interesting idea. It's a new city car from a Dutch company called Squad Mobility; a relatively ungainly thing if I'm honest, but one that suggests a tantalizing solution to the problem of city-dwellers needing EVs but not having anywhere to charge them.

[...] The problem is that, while solar panels are a great way to get energy, you need quite a lot of area to harvest enough to run something as power-hungry as an automobile. Covering a sedan's roof with photovoltaics-as Hyundai has done with the Sonata hybrid-might generate a peak of 600 W, which is enough to run the air conditioning and keep the 12 V battery charged.

[...] Which brings us back to the Squad solar city car, designed by a pair of former Lightyear employees. Much smaller than the examples listed above, it conforms to the regulations for Low Speed Vehicles here in the US, meant for EVs that have a speed cap of 25 mph (40 km/h).

Built around a solid-looking tubular roll-cage, the solar city car is styled mostly for practicality. On its roof is a solar panel with a peak output of 250 W that feeds the 6.4 kWh battery pack. It has three-point seatbelts and even cupholders, but the biggest draw might be the price-$6,585 (6,250) when it goes on sale in the US in 2024. That battery powers a pair of 2 kW motors, one driving each rear wheel.

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