A group from Switzerland will subsequent month start a highway journey throughout South Africa in a Tesla Mannequin X 100, which can pull a 3t trailer able to supplying energy to the car because it criss-crosses the nation.
The highway journey, the brainchild of former Swiss schoolteacher Louis Palmer, will depart from Cape City on 9 February. It’s going to soak up Mossel Bay earlier than turning north by the Free State, into Gauteng (visiting Johannesburg round 25 February) and on to the Kruger Nationwide Park earlier than concluding the journey at Durban’s port on the east coast. The thought is to go to as many colleges, universities, clear vitality websites and different local weather options throughout the nation as potential.
Palmer famously constructed a solar-powered automobile, the Solartaxi, and spent a year-and-a-half between 2007 and 2008 driving it around the globe, incomes him a “Champion of the Earth” award from the United Nations for his efforts to unfold the phrase in regards to the urgency of coping with human-induced local weather change.
Beforehand answerable for organising the world’s largest electrical automobile rally (in Switzerland and Germany), Palmer advised TechCentral in an interview this week that in Covid he got here up with the concept to construct a second solar-powered automobile, this time utilizing a trailer bedecked with photo voltaic panels that may unfurl when stationary for optimum energy technology.
Known as the SolarButterfly, the trailer received’t all the time present sufficient vitality for the Mannequin X’s journey – the plan is to high up the car utilizing South Africa’s fast-expanding electrical car (EV) charging community – however it’ll help the group to cut back its reliance on grid-supplied energy.
The threet trailer is 3m lengthy and contains residing quarters, a small house to sleep, and a small kitchen and loo.
90 international locations
The SolarButterfly has already traversed a number of international locations and areas, together with Central America, Mexico, the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Turkey and (most just lately) India. The trailer is at the moment on a ship from India to Cape City for the South African leg of the epic around-the-world journey.
“We need to go throughout 90 international locations in six continents in 4 or 5 years,” Palmer advised TechCentral. The intention is to succeed in as many individuals as potential alongside the way in which to speak about sustainability and local weather change.
Learn: All the electrical automobiles on the market in South Africa in 2025 – with costs
The SolarButterfly has 40sq m of photo voltaic panels on its “wings”, which may generate 7kW of electrical energy in ultimate situations. There are further panels on board that add produce an extra 7kW when laid out on the bottom – for a complete of 14kW of most photo voltaic manufacturing. This needs to be sufficient to provide the automobile as much as 220km of vary, or greater than the common deliberate every day journey distance of 150km. Nonetheless, the group will lean on EV charging infrastructure, significantly if the solar isn’t shining or if longer distances are being travelled.
Watch the SolarButterfly in motion
Key technical specs of the SolarButterfly:
- It has a kitchen, bathroom, bathe, operating water and as much as six beds;
- It makes use of light-weight however high-yield photo voltaic cells. The panels weigh 4.3kg per sq. metre, in comparison with 16kg for typical panels made with glass;
- The bathe reuses the vitality from the used sizzling water to avoid wasting 60% of vitality in comparison with a traditional bathe;
- It turns right into a “butterfly” on the push of a button;
- Its giant wingspan helps acquire the solar’s vitality;
- It produces sufficient vitality to drive as much as 220km/day;
- It was designed and constructed by Swiss universities and engineers; and
- It was constructed partly from 800kg of recycled and specifically processed plastic bottles discovered within the ocean and used within the partitions, panels and furnishings of the SolarButterfly.
The group expects to conclude the cross-country journey in Durban on 10 March, the place the Mannequin X and the SolarButterfly will likely be loaded onto a ship for the following leg of the worldwide tour. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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