Solar Team Eindhoven, a Dutch student team known for its solar-powered vehicles, has unveiled the world's first solar-powered mobile home. Its makers have called it Stella Vita, and they say it can generate enough solar electricity to drive 730 kilometers (ca. 454 miles) in a day, along with also being a house on wheels.
The Dutch students behind the project will undertake a month-long journey through Europe starting September 19, 2021. Stella Vita will be driven on solar energy alone from Eindhoven in The Netherlands, all the way to the southernmost tip of Spain.
This solar house on wheels features a shower, a kitchen, a sleeping space, and a cockpit. Its roof has several solar panels, which can be expanded when the vehicle Is parked, revealing a 17.5-square-meter (188 sq ft.) area. The latter is double when compared to the surface of the roof in the driving mode.
The student team claims that efficient energy use allows Stella Vita to travel up to 730 kilometers on a sunny day. Since the entire trip is 3,000 kilometers (ca. 1,864 miles) long, the student team does not plan to drive that much on a day-to-day basis.
The vehicle does not need any external charging points or fuel, and its solar panels can also power everything else found on-board, displaying a sustainable future for recreational vehicles and mobile homes. It is worth noting that everything about the Stella Vita has been designed to be as light and efficient as possible.
The members of Solar Team Eindhoven have previously presented other solar-powered vehicles, and all of them were dubbed Stella, which means Star in Latin. Many years ago, they presented the Stella Vie, which was the world's first road-legal five-seater solar car.
Its successor was called Stella Lux, which made more power than it consumed. While Subaru also had an electric vehicle called Stella since 2009, there is no link between the Dutch model and the Japanese key car.
