Twenty-three university students in the Netherlands spent a full year away from their regular classes and delivered something no one else had managed. On a July afternoon in 2026 they rolled out Stella Juva, a two-seat ambulance that generates its own electricity from the sun and uses that power both to move across difficult ground and to run a full set of medical tools. The project comes from Solar Team Eindhoven at Eindhoven University of Technology, the same group that previously built a solar family car, a solar camper, and an off-road solar vehicle that crossed Moroccan desert terrain.
Stella Juva is five meters long and slightly less than two meters wide. A carbon fiber composite keeps the overall weight to 1,350 kg, which is nearly half that of a traditional ambulance. The body is sleek and aerodynamic, designed to cut thru the wind with little resistance. A simple electrical speed limiter will keep things stable at 120 km/h, which is the maximum speed. Inside, there are only two seats, which is insufficient for a crew, but the vehicle’s back holds a medical suite rather than a stretcher. The reasoning is that it is far preferable for the vehicle to be able to travel to the patient rather than transporting them all the way to the hospital.
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The top of the vehicle is covered with 542 solar cells from the Chinese manufacturer AIKO. 326 of these cells are mounted flush with the roof and body. The remaining 216 are installed on fold-out panels that extend while the vehicle is parked. These are ‘All Back Contact’ cells, which keep all electrical connections on the back, leaving the front side of the panel free of any wiring that could impede light. The designers employed copper interconnects and unique silver-free metallization to assist the panels resist the hard abuse this device will receive. The solar cells are connected to a bespoke inverter built by the students; it is extremely efficient, 97% in fact, and outputs electricity in a lovely pure sine wave that the sensitive medical equipment can handle, with no unexpected voltage drops.
A 50 kWh battery is used to store electricity for the night, when the sun comes out, or when medics must perform an energy-intensive task. The power management is divided into two zones, so if the stored power runs low, the medical component is automatically prioritized over the motors. This maintains the air comfortable and ensures that vaccines and medicines remain chilled even when it is extremely hot outside. The crew has a variety of essential equipment on board, including an X-ray device for TB screening, an ultrasound scanner for pregnancy checks, fast malaria tests, blood-pressure and temperature monitors, an automatic defibrillator, and several outlets for using other first aid equipment.
On a good day, the team believes Stella Juva can travel up to 715 kilometers on paved roads without needing to recharge, thanks to its solar panels that are always producing power and the battery that still has some energy in it. Off-road, it will most likely be closer to 360 kilometers, depending on the surface. That’s still a major accomplishment, because it means the vehicle can keep running without having to stop for a charge or a fuel stop. The team is quick to point out that all of this is still very theoretical, and that only real-world testing will provide them with the true data.
As for how the idea came about, the team collaborated closely with Amref Health Africa from the outset. They were aware that health personnel in some of the most remote areas are frequently forced to commute by bicycle or on foot due to high gasoline costs and frequent power outages. Stella Juva is intended to be a self-contained unit capable of arriving, screening, treating, and vaccinating before departing. In August 2026, the team intends to transport the prototype to Kenya and conduct field testing at two distinct locations, treating TB cases and performing a variety of other checks while logging some serious kilometers in real-world settings.
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When it comes to cars, video games or geek culture, Bill is an expert of those and more. If not writing, Bill can be found traveling the world.
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