Many stories around the world have been published in magazines and newspapers about solar vehicles, solar cars and the unlimited applications of solar energy. A lot of research is being performed to promote the use solar cars and to make their wide-spread use practical in the future. In some sense, however, all automobiles are solar-powered. Almost all vehicles currently on the world's roads are powered by a petroleum derivative.
Petroleum is pumped from deep in the earth.
It was formed a long time ago from dead plants that used solar energy directly. Hence, petroleum energy is a type of solar energy captured in the petroleum products. When a petroleum product, such as gasoline is mixed with air and ignited in a conventional internal combustion engine, that ancient solar energy is released in a sudden explosion of gas that drives the piston and moves the vehicle. Although we have never driven a vehicle that was not powered by a fossil fuel, the ancestors of the modern vehicle were powered by a variety of energy forms. The steam power was the first used to mechanically drive road vehicles.