Patents are meant to encourage ideas to be disclosed, with the (reasonable) reward of exclusive rights for 20 years. If ideas aren’t protected no one will produce them. Many published patents spawn other ideas in the meantime, which may “get around” the orignial patent.

Patents have commercial value if they can be used to protect a profit stream by excluding others from making, using or selling whatever is covered by the patent’s claims.

Hence if oil companies or other entities had the wherewithal to buy this technology they can withhold it from others. Why do you think Toyota has approximately 1,000 plus patents on the hybrid synergy drive? It’s made other automakers (Ford, Nissan) come to them to license their techonology by limiting what they could do.

It would have been nice if the co-efficient of drag of the vehicle had been mentioned, because its looks are ok if indeed like 1940′s sedans.

OTOH, foks can go across the USA on bicycles in much less time, with the fastest being about 5 days. So a car that averages just 75 miles per day must spend a lot of time parked and recharging.

Another article on this website shows a huge solar panel on a ship. The panel only produces 50 kW (75 HP). A solar panel that could drive a car “real time” would be way bigger than a semi-truck.

And Captain Copernicus, don’t worry about oil companies buying up patents and keeping them secret. That’s a myth. Patents are, by definition, public. You can read any of them at the Patent Office’s website http://www.uspto.gov.

But who knows. Maybe some oil company will buy the patents and never release any of it to the public.

http://www.hochschule-bochum.de/en/solarcar/circumnavigation/current-position.html

Even in sunny so Cal over this summer-like “winter”, I noticed that my solar Malibu lights barely come on at night whereas in the summer months thay stay lit almost until morning.

I guess if the car performs adequate in the winter, it would be terrific when the sun gets a little higher.

MrEnergyCzar