Solectria Sunrise
The Solectria Sunrise was an innovative electric passenger car, designed to be as efficient as possible to produce long range from available battery technology.
![](../I/m/Solectria_Sunrise.jpg)
Created by Solectria Corporation of Woburn, Massachusetts (now Azure Dynamics Corporation), it was never produced beyond several prototypes, although significant effort was made to make the design worthy of mass-production—including crash testing.
The Sunrise is known for having achieved 375 miles (604 km) on a single charge, during the 1996 American Tour de Sol[1] competition. A Sunrise was driven 217 miles (349 km) from Boston to New York city "on a single battery charge, negotiating everyday traffic and highway speeds up to 65 miles per hour" (104 km/h).[2]
Specifications
- Body
- Composite, monocoque unibody shell
- Coefficient of Drag (Cd) approximately 0.17
- Dimensions
- length 176" (447 cm)
- width 74" (188 cm)
- height 52" (132 cm)
- wheelbase 104" (264 cm)
- Weights
- curb weight without batteries 1433 lb (650 kg)
- payload 682 lb (309 kg)
- GVWR 2979 lb (1351 kg)
- Drive system
- 50 kW Solectria AC induction motor, inverter, driving front wheels via Geo Metro transaxle
- Batteries
- Suspension
- front: 1994 Geo Metro MacPherson strut
- rear: 1994 Dodge Neon MacPherson strut
- coil springs with airbags
- manual Rack and pinion steering
- Brakes
- manual, Geo Metro front disk, Dodge Neon drum rear
- regenerative braking
- Tires
- 13" Geo Metro tires
- Performance
- 0–30 mph: 6 seconds
- 0–60 mph: 17 seconds
- range, Nickel metal hydride battery: 400 miles (643 km) at 30 mph (48 km/h), 200 miles (321 km)at 60 mph (96 km/h).
Kit version
In 2005, a single prototype as well as the moulds necessary to produce the composite chassis and body were sold and now belong to a hobbyist-led project to produce a similar vehicle as kits, to be known as the Sunrise EV2. See Sunrise-ev.com.
See also
- Battery Electric Vehicles
- Solectria Force, a "conversion" vehicle from the same company.
- Aptera Motors, whose Typ-1 uses a drivetrain made by Azure Dynamics.
References
- 1996 Tour De Sol report
- Revkin, Andrew (1997-10-24). "From Boston to 63d Street, On Single Battery Charge". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
External links
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