For years, they used to do a run of similar vehicles down the highway, of all places. Various colleges, tech schools, companies, and private individuals entered. For each solar vehicle, there were about 9 ICE vehicles. Each team had 12-20 members. Every year, these solar vehicles and their support teams clogged up the highway. Minimum highway speed is 40 MPH, but the solar vehicles couldn't go that fast on the level, and had a very short range. Like drivers of many electric vehicles, these people were more concerned with economy than being considerate, courteous, or lawful. The support teams would surround the solar vehicles, blocking the highway, often at speeds of less than 20 MPH. On the highway. When the solar vehicles broke down, the entire team just stopped, wherever they happened to be. No effort was made to move the vehicles from the driving lanes. The excuses included the facts that the solar vehicles had no safety lighting or safety features, or that they were too low. Ultimately, they were not street legal, and were ugly. Eventually, the project was killed. Doesn't seem much has changed.
The solar vehicles with which I'm familiar were not really solar. They started with batteries. If the sun wasn't bright enough, they would use ICE support vehicles to charge the batteries. When overnighting, the batteries were often replaced, or the ICE support vehicles charged the batteries. Going up hills, the batteries were charged by ICE vehicles. Yet, they always touted the "complete solar-powered" success of these rolling disasters.
