Haslett students to take homemade solar car from NYC to LA

HASLETT, Mich. (WLNS) — Three college students have been building a solar car for seven years. They built it in Haslett, and their goal is to drive it from New York City to Los Angeles.

They call it “Sun Strider.”

The project started when they were just juniors in high school. Kyle Samluk, Will Jones, and Danny Ezzo planned to do the journey back in 2021.

“That was not filled with success,” said Jones. “It was definitely a success just to design and build this car and get to New York City and start driving, but we ended up having to retire in Indiana.”

Jones says the car had trouble going through the Appalachian Mountains, putting a lot of stress on the electrical system.

“In the car ride home from Indiana after the first attempt, pretty quickly [we] realized we wanted to do it again and wanted to take another stab at it,” said Ezzo.

Now, three years later, they’ve regrouped and built a new and improved version.

“One of the big things we did was we made this car a lot lighter,” said Samluk. “We made it smaller and we have a smaller solar array.”

Along with some changes to the suspension and tires, they say the Sun Strider is an all-around better car than their first attempt.

“Every nickel and dime we’ve made working jobs are internships over the summer we sort of put into this car,” said Jones.

After about 80 hours a week of work and using their own money and resources, they believe they’ve created something with a message.

“It’s sort of the dream that you can not only build a solar car that can drive across the country but it can be done affordably,” continued Jones. “You can’t really see that when it sits in a field or on your roof, but when it’s driving down the road it really gets people excited about renewable and solar technology.”

Now the three friends are gearing up to make their journey across the country next week, calling it The Cannonball Sun .

“Generally in the team, we are feeling a little bit nervous, definitely excited,” said Ezzo. “We’re pretty confident in this car and its capabilities.”

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