How far do you think a solar powered car can travel? Here in the UK, perhaps not too far… say halfway down the M1 before a cloudy sky means it splutters to a halt.

However, the Power of One solar car, which began as a project several years ago, has been determined to break down this image – and now it has done so in style, travelling more than 12,000 miles purely on power from the sun.

The achievement marks a new world record for solar cars. The vehicle’s journey began symbolically in Toronto, Ontario on June 12 2008 at Seneca College, one of the project’s greatest supporters. In reality the actual drive began in Buffalo, New York, with the original plan that the vehicle would travel from Buffalo to Inuvik and back to Buffalo – however, invites from communities in Alaska and Washington meant its journey lasted much longer than that.

In fact, it crossed the continental divide eight times, travelled more than 1,200 miles on gravel roads and took on one of the wettest summers in the Northern Hemisphere in more than 30 years.

The vehicle has some eye catching specifications – it has a vehicle mass of 300kg, uses a brushless DC motor and has a maximum speed of 75mph.