A solar car is an electric vehicle powered by solar energy obtained from solar panels on the surface of the car. Photovoltaic (PV) cells convert the sun's energy directly into electrical energy. Solar cars are not practical day-to-day transportation devices at present, but are primarily demonstration vehicles and engineering exercises.

Solar cars compete in races (often called rayces) such as the World Solar Challenge, The Dell-Winston Solar Challenge and the American Solar Challenge. These events are often sponsored by government agencies, such as the United States Department of Energy, who are keen to promote the development of alternative energy technology (such as solar cells). Such challenges are often entered by universities to develop their students' engineering and technological skills, but many business corporations have entered competitions as well, including teams from GM and Ford. There are also a small number of High school teams who build and race solar cars. They can not usually manage to race with corporate and college cars so there are solar races designed exclusively for high school teams, the best known and longest running being the Dell-Winston Solar Challenge.