You've very likely seen the commercials. The ones with the Englishman talking about all the thousands of design iterations he went through to come up with a vacuum cleaner with a big yellow plastic ball in the middle of the base. Well, he's at it again. This time around James Dyson has his crew going down the EV path. The engineers at Dyson's disposal are apparently working on an electric motor derived from the one used in the vacuum cleaners that could be used to drive an electric car. Apparently not satisfied with the performance of the G-Wiz (who would be?) Dyson wants to do better and even plans to outfit an EV with solar panels. Dyson doesn't want to build the whole car, just the powertrain, so he's looking for an automaker to collaborate with. Maybe he should give Chrysler a call. They could surely use the help. Just leave the bright yellow ball in the workshop.

[Source: Daily Mail]

Have you ever dreamed of designing and building your own automobile? If you are anything like me, then the answer is a definite yes. Again, if you are anything like me (and you might be if you're reading this site), you also dream of cleaner transportation. So, what's holding you back? For me, it's funds and spousal approval, you know... I like to keep some sort of peace in the family. But, none of those things stopped Art Haines from building his own car; and not just a car, but a solar car at that! He set out certain goals which had to be met, like the range, size and speed, and made the design using nothing more than rough sketches at first, and then onto the computer. Pretty cool stuff indeed. If you'd like to know more, you should watch the video above.

Treehugger asks the question, if this vehicle can be built by one engineer and a class of students, why can't the big manufacturers make more progress in the field. The answer may have something to do with the fact that this type of vehicle isn't really practical enough for regular public consumption, and probably not safe enough in case of an accident. Read more about that subject here.

[Source: Youtube via Treehugger]

ZAP, which stands for Zero Air Pollution, was at the Chicago Auto Show which we were at, and we took pictures of the three-wheeled cars and trucks that they have to offer. At that time, their website showed that a solar option would be coming soon. Come it did; adding a solar panel to the roof adds roughly $2,000 to the price of the vehicle. The vehicle is called the ZAP Xebra Xero. No solid data exists on how long it may take to charge the batteries completely with the solar unit on the vehicles roof, which would depend on the amount of sun available and the angle at which the panel were pointed anyway. However, ZAP is claiming that the car can operate for short distances on power from the solar panel only. Again, just how long and how fast is debatable. Is the solar panel worth the price? Well, that would depend on the type of trip you are most likely to use the vehicle for. If you will use it rarely, so it has time to charge via the sun in between trips, it may work out great. Perhaps some real-world testing of the vehicle will give the rest of us some "live data" to consider.

In my opinion, it's a good first step. The days of masses of vehicles running solely on solar power are likely a ways off still. But, if there are some early adopters of the technology, and as the efficiency of the panels and individual cells increases, who knows? I for one would love never having to plug in an electric car, or fill the vehicles tank with fuel. Solar power truly is one of the cleanest forms of power you or I are likely to find.

Related:

• Chicago Auto Show: Gallery of Zap's current vehicles

[Source: ZAP via The Auto Channel]