California is jockeying for position in transportation innovation, expanding the electric vehicle ecosystem to grow not only the adoption of EVs, but their development as well.
Now, another California-based electric vehicle startup, Humble Motors, has revealed their concept SUV with a solar roof design they’ve named the Humble One. Instead of a glass roof, the Humble One has over 80 square feet of engineered photovoltaic cells that capture sunlight and transform it into energy. This generates enough electrical power to increase driving range by nearly 60 miles a day.
The Humble One concept SUV is 198 inches long, or just a little longer than a Toyota Corolla. It is shorter than the Tesla Cybertuck, and the weight, at 4,000 pounds, is fifteen hundred pounds lighter. The Humble One has been engineered to be as lightweight as possible while also comfortably fitting four people.
The Humble One has its fans — it has more than $20 million in reserved pre-orders, according to Alex Bogicevic, Humble’s engineering lead and a former executive for Ford. And its US reservations increased 426% last month at a time that other electric vehicle overall US sales only grew by 12%.
Humble’s team draws from a broad mix of physicists, engineers, and designers from automotive manufacturers including Ferrari, Piaggio, Formula One, and Ford.
Humble founder Dima Steesy said in an online press conference, the company is focused on developing, building and selling electric vehicles with solar roofs.
“We think solar is the future of mobility and that solar-powered electric vehicles are the clear next step to tackling carbon neutrality in the transportation ecosystem,” he said.