Don Auker's Tesla Roadster and Vectrix electric scooter in front of the 16 kW home solar gas station that tanks them up regularly. [Photo Courtesy of Don Auker]

Don Auker describes himself as a “techie.” A software developer from Lebanon, Penn., he has always had an interest in innovative technology. However, his technological interest goes beyond just computers.

Auker is also the proud owner of some of the most innovative vehicles currently on the market: A Tesla Roadster, one of the first that rolled off the assembly line, and a Vectrix electric scooter, according to Auker, the first one delivered in the U.S.

And to top it all off: Both of these vehicles are powered by his home’s 60-panel solar system.

Dr. Rob Wilder in his solar-charged Tesla Roadster. [Photo Courtesy of Rob Wilder]

Dr. Rob Wilder is a classic Californian. The Encinitas resident enjoys surfing, dining, bicycling and travelling, all exactly as a good Californian should. He also owns an expensive car, another classic “Cali” expectation.

The difference between Wilder and other Californians, however, is that his expensive car doesn’t run on gas—his Tesla Roadster runs on electricity generated by solar energy.

Felix Kramer standing with Chevy Volt next to Lake Tahoe in January 2011. [Photo Credit: CalCars.org]

Felix Kramer is a lifetime runner, author, entrepreneur and environmental advocate. He has a motivation to be the first to “start things that have never been done before.”

So, people familiar with his work can understand why he was the founder California Cars Initiative (CalCars) in 2002, and why, two years later, CalCars became the first to convert a Toyota Prius into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).

And now, Kramer and his wife recently became the first people in the world to own two of the new mass-produced plug-in cars: the Chevy Volt and Nissan LEAF.

Columbia University graduate students Garrett Fitzgerald (left) and Rob Van Haaren (right) plan to drive a production EV across the U.S. next summer using only power generated by a unique, rollable solar array. [Photo Courtesy of SolarJourneyUSA.com]

A cross-country road trip is virtually every American university student’s dream.

Usually, the dream is to zip across America in a car, maybe on a motorcycle, or, if you’re a little bit more adventurous and hardy, on a bicycle.

But in a solar-charged car?

You’ve got to be kidding!

Not if you’re Garrett Fitzgerald and Rob Van Haaren.

A Nissan LEAF and a Chevy Volt parked in George Parrott's and Christine Iwahashi's Sacramento, Calif. area garage (notice the solar inverters behind the LEAF!) [Photo Courtesy of George Parrott]

George Parrott.

If you think no one is going to buy electric cars, much less power them with solar, you might want to re-think your thinking. As the pages of SolarChargedDriving.Com show, there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary.

But don’t take our word for it. Go and see for yourself.

You might want to start with a trip to the Greater Sacramento, Calif. area and George Parrott’s house. Parrott and his wife, Christine Iwahashi, are among the very first people in the United States with both a Chevy Volt and a Nissan LEAF – and they’ve got solar on their home’s rooftop, enough to cover nearly all of the annual electric miles they’ll be driving in their plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles plus all of the electricity they use for their home.

“My best impression is that we’re the second household that has both cars,” explains Parrott. “The first was Felix Kramer’s in the (San Francisco) Bay Area. His house is also heavily solar equipped.”

Paul Moore poses next to a Ford Ranger Electric which is partially powered by a solar array on his Phoenix, Ariz. area home. [Photo Courtesy of Paul Moore]

Can one person persuade America – and the world -- that solar-charged driving is the future? Probably not. But if there’s someone who could come close, it’s Paul Moore.

Articulate, funny, able to tell good stories, and, most importantly, someone you can connect with on a personal level, whether you’re a left-leaning greenie or a right-leaning energy independence guy, Moore has energetically taken up the mantle of EV + solar PV education and promotion in his corner of the world, which just so happens to be one of the best places on earth for solar: Arizona.

GM-Volt.Com's Lyle Dennis in front of his favorite car. [Photo Credit: General Motors]

There are bandwagon jumpers and then there are the people who start the bandwagon long before it’s a bandwagon.

Lyle Dennis, founder of the popular web site GM-Volt.com, which is devoted to Chevy’s new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), or as GM prefers to call it, an “extended range electric vehicle” (EREV), is very definitely one of the latter.

Solar was part of the inspiration behind Plug In America Co-founder Sherry Boschert's decision to plug in to electric driving. [Photos Courtesy of Sherry Boschert]

For Sherry Boschert, driving an electric vehicle is more than just a means of transportation; it symbolizes a way of life.

Co-founder of the non-profit volunteer organization Plug-In America and a long-time environmentalist, Sherry Boschert currently drives a Toyota Rav4 EV that she says goes about one hundred miles on one charge. But Boschert’s EV is not just any electric vehicle, and it’s not her first. It’s also solar-charged.

It’s perfectly appropriate that Paul Scott’s initials are PS -- as in Pro Solar. Scott’s a strong solar supporter and veteran solar industry professional.

But, as many electric vehicle fans know, Pro Solar only tells half the Scott story. Scott’s also a long-time plug-in vehicle activist, having worked with a group of EV supporters to found the non-profit electric vehicle advocacy group Plug In America more than a decade ago.

A lifelong fan of solar, Phil Blackwood got a MINI E and then put up a 9.4 kW home solar system so that he could power it -- and his home -- with sun. [Photo Courtesy of Phil Blackwood]

Phil Blackwood had been celebrating solar from afar for years.

On the drive home from work, he’d eye homes with solar and wish he had a sleek, shiny PV array for his Lincroft, New Jersey home.

However, while many solar gawkers jealously eye others’ home solar systems from inside a gasoline-powered car, for the past year or so Blackwood wasn’t driving past local PV systems in an average vehicle. He was zipping by in a car that can actually run on the energy produced by a home solar array – a MINI E, an electric prototype version of BMW’s MINI.