Dutch students tease solar car that goes months without charging

Fledgling Dutch car maker, Lightyear, has released a video that teases its first pure-electric production car that's claimed to be able to drive for months on solar energy alone.

Called the One, the car teased is claimed to be near production with an on-sale date some time in 2018.

According to its creators, relying on northern European sunshine alone, the One is capable of being driven more than 10,000km - any more, and conventional charging will make up the deficit, says Lightyear.

Costing €119,000 (A$178,000), the solar powered alternative to a Tesla Model S is the work of former Dutch students from Eindhoven University of Technology who handily won the 2013 World Solar Challenge.

Technical specs have yet to be released for Lightyear's first vehicle but the four-door sedan is expected to come with all-wheel drive and solar cell technology developed directly from the winning Challenge car.

This, says the former students, has helped shave around €1 billion from the development cost of creating the One, with the engineers behind Lightyear's first production vehicle confident a production-ready car will cost just "a few million euros” to develop.

Claimed to already have five orders, production has been pegged at 200 cars a year from 2018.

Lightyear says several interested investors will help bring its ambitious plans to fruition.

Commenting on the One tease, Lightyear's Tesse Hartjes said: "We used all the student-time knowledge to develop a commercial solar car.

"If Tesla had this technique when they started, they would also build a solar car.”