BOULDER, Colo. -- Driving 20,000 miles in a world-wide tour, a Swiss man hopes his Solar Taxi will inspire a new way of looking at transportation.

"Just make people think. What do we really need to go down the road? Is it really the cars that we have today? Or maybe something completely different?" said Louis Palmer.

Palmer spent three years designing, building and testing the Solar Taxi in his native Switzerland.

The three-wheeled electric car can travel up to 200 miles on a cloudy day and up to 50 mph.

"I got used to it. So far, no problems. People like the car on the freeway. People like this car everywhere. So people react positively," Palmer said.

Every night he plugs the car into a typical home electrical socket to recharge two high-temperature sodium batteries. Solar power does the rest and can cause the available range of energy to fluctuate by more then 25 percent.

"We have great new battery technology these days. That's why I am absolutely sure that the electric car is going to pick up," Palmer said.

On Sunday, at least three dozen people came to see the car at the REI on 28th street.

They were asked if they thought this time, despite similar "cars of the future" from the past that never made it, if this was "the one."

"Yeah, I think so. Because I think the technology's changing and the time is here," said Jim Shapiro, a long time hybrid driver. "With gas prices up, everything's changing. The whole game has changed. And everybody knows it."

"It's demand that makes this stuff work. And as the general population demands a better product for themselves, as they get more conscious of what's going on, then the supply will come as well," said Noel Love.

Palmer said a trailer with solar panels is not effective and that the panels must remain on buildings, providing the juice needed to recharge the batteries each night.

He said the panels on his home in Lucerne are replacing every watt he uses in the United States.

That's why the Solar Taxi is billed as "energy neutral."

By the way, Palmer calls the vehicle a taxi because more than 1,000 people have taken a ride.

The Solar Taxi will be at the Discovery Learning Center on the University of Colorado Boulder campus on Monday, Aug. 11 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.