After three seasons on a drive to set the world’s distance record for a solar-powered vehicle, this addiction to sunlight has turned da Luz into a daydreamy vagabond — over his head in debt, at the mercy of strangers, dependent on the 26 lithium-ion batteries pushing him through a world governed by serendipity.
“I’ve got no wife, no kids — only a cat, and she probably doesn’t remember me anymore,” da Luz, 40, said the other day, waiting out the rain at a friend’s place in Palo Alto. “I lost my girlfriend and my job because of this crazy passion. It’s bizarre, but this journey has become everything for me.”
The car he calls “XOF1” — or the power of one — is more than just a 13-foot-long, 470-pound oddity quietly rolling down North America’s backroads. It’s the manifestation of a vision da Luz first had watching television in his native Sao Paulo back in 1987. Mesmerized by the sci-fi solar-cars racing in the inaugural World Solar Challenge through the Australian Outback, da Luz said “a light bulb went off for me. I thought those cars were so futuristic and so positive for the world. It was as if I’d seen the future.”
Solar made sense. But, said da Luz, “I was not particularly scientific, I had no means to build such a thing, I’m a nobody — so I left the idea on the back burner.”
After moving to Canada in 1990, the dream refused to die. Solar-powered cars were already out there, but he would build his own from scratch, take it on the road, push it into the record books, and spread the solar gospel at schools and campgrounds along the way.
“We are all hypocrites,’’ said da Luz, “waiting for our governments to save the planet, but we need to start doing it ourselves. This would be my way of doing my share for the environment and hopefully inspiring others to do the same.”
He went to Australia to see the cars firsthand. He reached out to academics and the electric-car community for guidance, often being brushed off.
“I’ve knocked on 1,300 doors for help,” he said, “and most of the time I’ve been turned down.” He got mechanical help from students and teachers at a college in Toronto
“I had no money, so I refinanced my house,” he said. “I had only three years left on the mortgage. Now it’s 25 years.” He estimates he has spent about $500,000 on the project so far, including thousands of hours of his own time.
Unable to land cash sponsors, da Luz set out on his own last June to break the world’s distance record for a solar vehicle — 9,364 miles, set in 2004 by a team of fellow Canadians.
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