Solectrike Is a Trike Concept Able to Become the Next Solar Powered Mobility EV

The design you see in the gallery seems to be one of those ideas that spawn from such moments, or it’s built for a niche. Whatever the reason behind its creation, this concept does include a few ideas that could one day be seen on other vehicles.

It’s called the Solectrike and is from the mind of one industrial designer named Chen Liu from Linz, Austria. If we are to dissect this vehicles name, we can get a clear picture as to what it is and does. “Sol” from solar, “lec” from electric, and “trike,” well, from trike. When you put it all together what do you get? That’s right, a solar powered electric trike.

And that is exactly what this vehicle is. But who it is meant for, is a whole different story. Unlike other designs we’ve shown you, this one is targeted towards a specific breed of human, the tourist. Before we go on and on about why we do or don’t like tourists, I want to remind us all that they too are humans.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about this idea. The way it all happened is the same as with any other idea or invention, it meets a need, or in this case, the many needs of the tourist. But Liu narrowed it down to just three needs, heat, a lack of time, and long distances. From there, this happened.

First off, the trike is composed of two major segments, the rear which includes the motor, seat, and chain stay, and the front which is the charging module.

The rear of the trike resembles that of any other bike or trike design, except for that oddly shaped frame. But there is a method to this madness. The reason this frame is shaped as such to connect with the charging module, because remember, it’s two separate pieces.

As for the front, the charging module, a plethora of ideas take hold here. The first is the actual charging this module does. As I mentioned earlier, this EV is solar, and being solar, there must be a way to capture the sun's rays. And there is, in the form of a photovoltaic umbrella. What you can’t see it? That’s because most of the time it will sit neatly folded at the front of the trike. But when you need to recharge, deploy it and just chill.

Speaking of chill. Because this vehicle is created with the tourist in mind, it also includes a seat function that allows you to just chill, while recharging the battery. This also gives you an opportunity to have a clean and comfortable seat while just soaking up the view or the rays on a beach. To be able to do this, a sort of kickstand is deployed from behind the module that positions the contraption at the perfect angle for relaxing.

Once you’re done, connect back up to the rear module, and get back to the pick-up and drop-off point so that you can catch your cruise liner that’s leaving in 20 minutes.

Honestly it does seem like a doable and decent design, so much in that it even got a Red Dot award. But before it becomes a reality, we still need to get a few kinks worked out of the whole solar charging business.