Meet “Immortus”, the world’s first solar powered, impressive, eco-friendly car that is being built by an Australian start-up. Australian electric vehicle start-up EVX, along with the researchers at Swinburne University of technology, Melbourne are working together to build the innovative Immortus which has a design that was inspired by the post-Apocalyptic movies such as Mad Max. Swinburne institution has considerable expertise not only in solar energy research but also in electric vehicle technology and hence the young start-up firm is working in collaboration with this institution. Basically, Immortus car is a normal electric vehicle that requires to be plugged in into your wall socket and charged, thus making it eco-friendly. Then, what makes it different? Well, the car would be provided with voluminous ‘solar panels’ on its roof which will use the Sun’s rays and provide additional power to the car while it is being driven. It is this additional power which will help the car to stay on the road for a considerably longer time and the company boasts that the solar panels would give a ‘never ending staying power’ to the car. EVX’s statement on its official website says: “The ability to run on the power of the sun and store the energy for later use make it a car of practically infinite endurance. As long as the sun shines the Immortus lives…” For now, this seems to be just marketing gimmicks by EVX. During a press release, Barry Nguyen, co-founder as well as CEO of EVX said: “Without government funding so far, we have made significant progress in our R&D and getting closer to turn our ambitious vision into a reality. With the strong leadership of Dr Clint Steele, we have succeeded in keeping our approach lean through working with final year engineering students and new graduate engineers.” EVX claims that the sports car would be able to reach 100 km/h in just 7 seconds and it has been provided with a combined battery and solar range of over 550 km at an average rate of 85 km/h. EVX also adds that depending on the solar conditions and overall environmental conditions the vehicle is able to run indefinitely solely on solar power. It further also claims that Immortus can run at an unlimited range even at speeds over 60 km/h and the company even boasts that the car delivers “the complete independence that comes from never [needing] to refuel”. In other words, EVX aims to give their customers total independence so that they need not stop the cars at any charging stations. However, this is all theoretical because Immortus is yet in its conceptual stage and it does not exist in reality. The creators of this exotic car are giving their best make this technology a reality and they have plans to display its prototype at SEMA 2015 which is an auto show dedicated to specialty equipment that will be held at at the Las Vegas Convention Centre in November. While speaking to Ben Schiller at Fast Company, Nguyen told: “We’re not trying to be a Tesla because that would require a lot of money just to get the car onto the road. Because the car will be very expensive to make, we make the car into a technology platform, using technologies that make up a solar car.” Well, whoever says Solar powered can’t bring in the style! Just one look at the design of this proposed Immortus sports is enough to make someone fall in love with this aesthetically pleasing, sleek designed, impressive, two person sportscar. Immortus would be a limited-edition car and EVX is planning to bring just 100 units with an anticipated selling price of $370,000!
