China’s Hanergy Holding Group has shaken up the global competition to satisfy the emerging market for electric vehicles with a prototype that makes a promise no other automaker can (yet) meet: free fuel, for life.
Beijing-based Hanergy also produces a proprietary formulation of flexible, thin-film solar cells for which it claims an energy conversion rate of 31.6%. Its four Hanergy Solar car models, unveiled in the Chinese capital, will each be partly surfaced in that solar film and, according to claims reported by RenewEconomy, capable of gathering enough electrons from five to six hours of sunlight to travel about 80 kilometres on solar power alone.
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To buffer range anxiety, Hanergy’s cars will also come equipped with lithium-ion batteries with a promised range of 350 kilometres on a full charge, the company says.
The company’s venture takes a more direct approach to an insight also claimed by industry leader Tesla. CEO Elon Musk recently unveiled an offer for the outstanding shares of America’s largest residential solar panel installer, Solar City, based on a similar premise of synergy between free sunshine, photovoltaic power, batteries, and electric cars—although in that case without putting the solar cells right on the cars.
