Solar-Mobility is the open community for solar-powered e-bikes, trikes, campers and everything else that moves on sunlight. Browse real builds, share yours, go further.
Community builds
4 Wheels
Stella Vita – A Solar-Powered House on Wheels
If you have ever dreamed of a solar camper, this is the vehicle to look at. Solar Team Eindhoven is famous for its solar family cars…
3 Wheels
Momentum – Michigan’s Three-Wheeled Solar Champion
The University of Michigan Solar Car Team is one of the most successful student teams in solar racing, and Momentum is one of its best-known cars.…
5+ Wheels
Lunokhod 1 – The First Solar-Charged Rover on the Moon
Long before Mars rovers, the first remote-controlled vehicle to drive on another world was solar-charged. Lunokhod 1 ("moon walker") landed in the Mare Imbrium on 17…
2 Wheels
Michel Mittler – Solar Cargo Bike on The Sun Trip 2026
Michel Mittler (France) took part in Sun Trip Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 2026, the long-distance adventure on solar-powered bikes held since 2013. The machine is a solar cargo bike.…
Boats
Malt’s Mermaid – Across the Pacific on Sunlight
Kenichi Horie is a legend of Japanese sailing. In 1962 he famously sailed alone across the Pacific from Japan to San Francisco. In 1996 he set…
4 Wheels
ARI 458 Solar – An Electric Micro-Van That Charges Itself
Delivery vans do lots of short trips, park outside all day, and have big flat surfaces. That makes them ideal candidates for solar charging. The ARI…
3 Wheels
Tokai Challenger – 100 km/h Across Australia on Sunlight
In 2009 a Japanese university team ended years of Dutch dominance at the World Solar Challenge, the 3,000 km race across Australia from Darwin to Adelaide.…
Planes
Solar Riser – The First Human Flight on Solar Power (1979)
Every big story starts small. Long before Solar Impulse 2 flew around the world, a man in California flew half a mile at 12 metres above…
2 Wheels · Trailer
SolarWind – Raf Van Hulle’s Sun Trip-Winning Solar Bikes
If one person stands for long-distance solar cycling, it is Raf Van Hulle, an architect from Mechelen in Belgium. He won the first Sun Trip in…
How it works
The guide · preorder
Everything you need to build your own solar-powered e-bike: choosing panels, wiring, charge controllers and batteries, explained step by step by the community.
Solar charging, explained
Solar e-bikes, pedelecs, trikes and campers all work on the same idea: a solar panel turns daylight into electricity, a charge controller feeds it safely into the battery, and every hour of sun adds range.
A pedelec only assists while you pedal (in the EU up to 25 km/h and 250 W); most people simply call it an e-bike. A solar e-bike either carries its own solar panel on the bike, the rack or a trailer, or it is a normal electric bike charged with solar power at home. Both ride on sunshine instead of the grid.
For a typical 36 V or 48 V e-bike battery, plan on a 100–200 W solar panel. Either the panel charges the battery directly through an MPPT charge controller with a boost converter, or it fills a small power station and you plug in your normal charger. In full summer sun, a 400–500 Wh battery is full in about a day.
Range depends on capacity in watt-hours (Wh): a pedelec uses roughly 7–15 Wh per kilometre, depending on terrain and assist level. Most e-bike batteries are lithium-ion (NMC); for campers, trikes and trailers many solar builders prefer LiFePO4, which is safer, lasts thousands of cycles and copes well with daily partial charging. Keep the battery cool and never charge a damaged pack.
Lightweight flexible solar panels fit racks, cargo bikes and trike roofs; rigid glass panels give more watts per euro on a solar bike trailer or a camper. Rule of thumb: in good sun, every 100 W of panel adds around 20–40 km of assisted riding per day.
On adventures like the Sun Trip, riders often cover more than 100 km a day on solar power alone: the panel charges while you ride and during breaks, so the battery rarely runs empty. The real gain is independence from sockets – at the campsite, on the mountain pass and on long days off-grid.
Most builds in this community are DIY: a standard e-bike or a conversion kit, a 100–300 W panel, an MPPT controller matched to the battery voltage, fuses and good connectors. Our guide Ride on Sunshine walks you through panels, wiring, charge controllers and batteries step by step.
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Bon voyage
A community of riders and tinkerers driven by a single mission: maximising range through solar energy. From Europe to every continent.
The open community for solar-powered e-bikes, trikes, campers and everything else that moves on sunlight. Browse real builds, share yours, go further.
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