Purdue unveils street-legal solar car

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Over the past two years, Purdue University's Solar Racing Team has been developing a street-legal solar car. On Friday night, it was unveiled to the public.

Under bright lights and a beige cloth sat the team's prototype inside Purdue's South Ballroom. Celeritas, a completely solar electric vehicle, made its public debut. It's the work of nearly 40 students and countless hours of manpower.

"Absolutely amazing how much time the team puts in and its effort. Many team members are at the garage three, four days per week pulling all-nighters the past couple weeks to get the car done," said team president Ted Pesyna.

Celeritas is equipped with taillights, headlights, even a place for a license plate - all things to make this car roadworthy and legal.

"In a couple of months, the goal is to make it a completely street-legal vehicle," said Pesyna.

The idea for Celeritas came from a specific category in a national competition. The team designed this car to compete.

"We thought, 'Well if we're going to make an urban-concept vehicle to compete in this category, it would really have a greater impact to the public if we really made it so that it was going to be a vehicle," said Galen King, a Mechanical Engineering Professor.

As long the sun is shining, Celeritas will be driving. But, even if clouds roll in, you can keep driving.

"Even if it's not sunny, you can just run off the battery power and plug it in at home," said Pesyna.

But, don't look for this car to be in mass production anytime soon.

"It's something that we can drive around the roads at Purdue, West Lafayette and Lafayette areas going to different outreach events. That's the goal," said Pesyna.

The team will take Celeritas to the Shell Eco-Marathon competition in Texas later this month.

This story comes to you from our partner WLFI-TV.