A team of graduate automotive engineering students at Clemson University in South Carolina has developed Deep Orange 17, an energy-positive solar-integrated electric vehicle (EV) prototype designed to generate more energy than it consumes during a typical day of urban driving.
Created through Clemson’s Deep Orange program in partnership with industry leaders BMW and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, the prototype integrates solar power into the car’s core propulsion strategy rather than treating it as an auxiliary feature.
Key Highlights:
- Integrated Solar Power: Over 1,700 solar photovoltaic (PV) cells are directly built into the exterior body of the two-door vehicle, continuously recharging its battery system.
- Energy Positive Performance: Computer modeling across four cities—Greenville (South Carolina), Frankfurt (Germany), Madrid (Spain), and Mumbai (India)—showed that based on a 20 km daily commute, the car generated enough extra solar energy to add an average of 50 km of surplus driving range per day.
- Ultra-Lightweight Engineering: Deep Orange 17 weighs only 550 kg—roughly one-fourth the mass of standard production EVs. The chassis utilizes a multi-material architecture combining structural steel, aluminum components, carbon fiber members, and 3D-printed metal joints.
- Maximized Efficiency: Features regenerative braking, intelligent torque distribution, and advanced power electronics to minimize energy loss and maximize recovery.
While commercial solar-car efforts (such as Sono Motors) have faced market headwinds, the Deep Orange 17 prototype serves as a proof-of-concept demonstrating how radical lightweight construction and embedded solar tech can move EVs closer to true energy independence.
