Building his own electric car – hoping to reach infinite range

Drew Unger has built an electric car that never needs charging. Equipped with nine solar panels, the car has an impressive range and can reach speeds of 45 km/h.
– In theory, the car has infinite range, says Drew Unger.

About a year ago, Drew Anger built an electric car that looked like a small cart with three solar panels on it. He tested its range and managed to reach 92 km. That was an impressive number for a house, but Anger didn’t stop there. Instead, he wanted to take his idea to the next level.
“I'm going to make some modifications to my electric car to get infinite range,” says Drew Unger.

The electric car has two 1,500-watt motors and a 4,000-watt-hour battery. On a sunny day, the three solar panels can handle 450 watts while the electric car is driving. So to extend its range, Unger had to somehow put more solar panels there.

To calculate how many watts he needed to generate, he took the electric car out to see how much power the motors burned. He saw that the motors in a typical road team burned about 1,200 watts. So he would need solar panels that generated 1,200 watts or more to achieve infinite range.
“Instead of modifying the car’s body, I’m going to build a trailer that can accommodate a number of solar panels,” Anger says.

Then he starts building, which he does himself. When the trailer base is ready, he installs six solar panels on it. Combined with the three solar panels already on the vehicle, it should now be able to generate 1,575 watts.
“Now is the time to consider how far we can go,” says Drew Unger.

The next morning, he parks his electric car outside so the solar panels can charge the electric car. When it’s fully charged, he hits the road. The weather is perfect, with no clouds in the sky and bright sunshine, which means the car is generating 1,350 watts continuously. After driving 130 kilometers, the battery is almost fully charged.

But as the day progressed, the solar energy became weaker, which was clearly visible in the electric car's battery, which was constantly losing power. At sunset, when the electric car had traveled 250 kilometers, it finally stopped.
“If you use your time properly, I'm sure you can easily cover 400 kilometers,” says Drew Unger.
Read more:

William Carlsson is a qualified journalist and has worked for Sveriges Radio and Sörmlands Nyheter, among others.