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"[Science fiction] has become big business, where books are merchandised and promoted and distributed and placed on sale like slabs of bacon or cans of soup."
- Frederik Pohl

Solar Car  
  A car the energy for which comes from the sun.  

As far as I know, this is the first mention of this phrase in science fiction. This is not a vehicle that uses solar panels actually on the car to power it, however.

IN ten minutes Hal was in his private solar car driving at a smooth 500 m.p.h. down the elevated city track to the space grounds.* As he drove he meditated, still none too certain of the setup in which he had landed. To own a planet was one thing: to be sure how much others knew about it was another.

He glanced up suddenly at his rear mirror as he heard a roar behind him. In the mirror was a powerful black solar car striving to overtake him. To move out of his single car track was impossible.

Then his alarm abated and he grinned. Of course! These cars were not like 1970. They moved in a fixed groove and the black car was on the faster track anyway. He waited for it to overtake him.

* Solar car — A car assumed to utilize the power of the sun, this power operating from a central plant and distributed to all Vehicles. The idea exists today in the minds of scientists.— Ed.

Technovelgy from The Man Who Bought Mars, by Polton Cross.
Published by Fantastic Adventures in 1941
Additional resources -

Compare to the steel tortoise from Coventry (1940) by Robert Heinlein.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Man Who Bought Mars
  More Ideas and Technology by Polton Cross
  Tech news articles related to The Man Who Bought Mars
  Tech news articles related to works by Polton Cross

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