Hi! My name is Yuriy or Yura for short. I made this website about my solar electric velomobile or PV-electro-velomobile I finished in the summer of 2018. I call it yuramobile or YM. I'll refer to it as the trike too.
Yuramobile's drivetrain combines a pedaling unit, a hub electric motor, a 2KWh lithium battery and a handmade photovoltaics (PV) panel that offer around 200 km of battery-only range. Leave it in the sun for a day and you get 100 km of a free ride!
YM is based on a single person fully-suspended velomobile - Alleweder A7- that seized to be produced in 2013 (and cost about EUR 4.5K then with the options I got), but has a reliable and time-proven Alleweder frame (about 750 produced since 1991). It's a head-out streamlined tricycle (velomobile) as opposed to a fully-faired one (e.g. go-one Evo-R).
It is made to prove in general that the use of PV in a road vehicle is feasible and already makes sense even for mid- to long-range rides thus should not be restricted to such special events as solar challenges (e.g. WSC or the Sun Trip). In particular, I made it to check if a combination of a battery electric head-out velomobile and an overhead PV source of power produces a more comfortable ride while helping charge/top up the battery. Now I have very positive answers to both questions. I can reach about 15 km/h in yuramobile on the solar power alone (a horizontal well-paved road and the sun is high up)! But with the traction battery in, the top speed is 40 km/h with no sun or pedals involved.
If you are interested in building something similar, please read on. I am sure you will find useful information in any case. The majority of pictures and two brief video clips are in the Timeline section. There are also shaky vids here or here, sorry can't find time to make good ones.
I'll elaborate on the benefits of having a PV panel above your head. Every velomobile rider enjoys better protection from road hazards and elements compared to riders of unfaired recumbent bicycles, trikes or quads. But in order to have a complete protection from elements, a rider needs a fully-faired setup or a cap, yet with such features s/he discovers new problems in the from of glass fogging or poor cooling of the rider's body. Thus in yuramobile the overhead PV unit shades your head from the sun and protects from the rain while sending from 30 to 100 W of clean and free power to the battery while on the go. Given that the PV panel's underside is made of a 10 mm polycarbonate panel that is sturdily affixed to the vehicle's body, it should offer a bit of protection to the rider in case of an accident as well.
I am not claiming to be the first. This has been done before and many times. Yet I found only two similar attempts that are based on serially produced velomobiles (see Quest and WAW), but I'm not sure if they are for sale.
The known purpose-built PV competitors to yuramobile include the Solar Velomobile sold by Hammacher Schlemmer in the USA (priced at USD 9.9K, it got a 70 km battery-only range, sold only in the North America and New Zealand), PEBL (price starts at USD 7,950, it has about 50 km of range with moderate pedaling, shipping time is 5-7 months from order date), and ELF (price from USD 8.895 and up and has up to 80 km of range). There are also those that are still concepts or are to be produced (Pannonrider, Veemo, mö, Ampimobile, etc). I can also mention Allight, the producer of A7, who sells a bit more comfier than A7 electric-assist velomobile Sunrider for EUR 9.7K (the version that goes up to 45 km/h costs EUR 11.7K, check here under Pricelist) and it has no PV part.
In essence Yuramobile's main differences from the competition are: it has a time-proven durability (it couples a fiberglass fairing with an aluminum frame), all wheels are of the same size and easily accessible (unlike Quest and WAW), the rear part of the panel flips up to let you in or out, and the panel is designed to withstand the impact of hail or small stones.
The batteries and the hub motor are placed quite low thus the trike's center of gravity is also low making the trike exceptionally stable. In addition, the panel is easily serviceable, e.g. it's easy to replace a solar cell if it fails or to do any mods you are up to.
