The Solar-Powered Electric Bicycle Is Here

on April 8, 2015 at 2:36 pm

The Solar Bike can go for 40 miles on sustainable energy.

Here’s an electric bike that doesn’t need plugging in.. or swapping out batteries. As the name suggests, the Solarbike has solar cells built into both sides of the party typical bicycle wheels, using cells (and a design) that’s apparently “shadow optimized.” The Solar bike is designed by Jesper Frausig from Denmark.

Frausig has been working on it for 3 years and built two prototypes, and claims that it has a 70 km (43 mile) range and a maximum speed of 50 km/hr (30 mph) and a standard speed of 15 mph, which sounds safer for a bike. When it putters to a stand-still, that’s when the “highly efficient” and “shadow optimized” panels come into play, says Frausig. They can suck up enough juice on a sunny day to go for 15 more miles. On a cloudy one, though, that distance shortens to about 1 mile. Even the lights of the bike have integrated solar technology.

It’s already been nominated for a design award, although whether the idea, however well implemented, becomes a commercial reality is still yet to be seen.