Geoff, is that you? This solar-powered coupe recovers more energy than it uses on a single commute

He’s back! Well, officially what you’re looking at here is called the Deep Orange 17 as it was designed and built by students on Clemson University’s Deep Orange automotive engineering programme, but are you really going to try and tell us that this isn’t the second coming of TopGear telly’s iconic Geoff?

It’s quite a clever iteration, in fairness. Even more so than the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust with its fancy diesel range-extender. That’s because the Deep Orange 17 is what’s described as an “energy-positive electric vehicle”. Essentially, that means it generates more energy than it consumes during a standard day of commuting.

We’re told that the challenge for the South Carolina students was set by BMW of North America back in late 2024 and the prototype was developed in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. And yes, the brilliantly straight body is almost entirely made up of solar panels. The exterior design was apparently inspired by both the boxfish and “BMW's design heritage”. Erm…

Still, there are more than 1,700 photovoltaic cells on the outside of the 17, meaning its battery can be replenished while parked and on the move. No word on the capacity of said battery, but it can’t be huge given the whole car weighs just 550kg. No word either on whether the chassis underneath comes from an old TVR Chimaera a la Geoff.

This thing does gets regenerative braking and ‘intelligent torque distribution’ though. Oh, and simulations have shown that if your daily commute was 12 miles each way, the car would generate an average of 31 miles of additional range from solar energy while parked up at work for the day. That was modelled using environmental conditions and sunlight availability in South Carolina, Frankfurt, Madrid and Mumbai.

“It’s rare for a master’s student to have the opportunity to experience the complete process of developing a prototype vehicle,” said Anshul Karn, Deep Orange project manager.

“Many engineering programmes include courses in areas like digital modelling or marketing, but very few give students the opportunity to begin with a vision, work through the entire development process and ultimately deliver a fully functioning prototype. That experience is what makes Deep Orange so unique.”

The 16 students who developed and built Deep Orange 17 will graduate this month with Master of Science degrees in Automotive Engineering, but perhaps a few of them have futures in design? They clearly know a good-looking car like Geoff when they see one, and we can all agree that this thing still looks better than the XM.