Stella (solar vehicles)

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Stella and its successors Stella Lux, Stella Vie and Stella Era are a series of solar racing family cars, built for the World Solar Challenge in Australia, sofar winning its Cruiser Class all four times it was held – in 2013, 2015, 2017 and in 2019.^[1][2][3][4] Stella is considered the world’s first solar-powered family car and was given the 'Best Technology Development' Award at the 8th annual Crunchies in San Francisco in 2015.^[5][6] Being the only competing vehicle with a license plate, the road registration of Stella contributed to the winning score in the races.^[7] The vehicles are designed and built by "Solar Team Eindhoven" (STE) — some 26 students of different faculties of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands. The group have set up a non-profit foundation to promote their concepts for practical solar vehicles for adoption on a broader scale.^[8]

Contrary to previous solar vehicle race classes that focus primarily on speed, and are contested by highly impractical single-seat racers, a new competition for more "practical" solar electrical vehicles was added to the 2013 edition of the World Solar Challenge (WSC): the Cruiser Class. Vehicles competing carry two or more occupants, each facing forwards, and are judged not only on the time taken to complete the course, but also on their external energy use, payload carried, and an overall practicality assessment.^[9]

For this competition a student team from TU Eindhoven created Stella, a solar powered "family car" with four seats and luggage space, which won the WSC's Cruiser Class in 2013.^[2] The car is capable of a top speed of 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph) with a full load of four people,^[7] using mainstream solar cell technology.^[10]
In 2015 Solar Team Eindhoven repeated this achievement with an improved version of the car, called Stella Lux.^[3] In 2017 they built a five-seat successor called Stella Vie,^[11] with which they won the year's edition of the WSC again.

In 2017, some of the students responsible for the vehicles have launched their own startup company to make a commercially viable version of the car, called Lightyear One.^[12] They are hoping to start with a first small production run of 10 “Signature” cars in 2019 and then produce 100 more in 2020. The car is projected to cost at least €120,000 excluding VAT or sales tax, but will offer four-wheel drive for optimal traction.^[13]