The Wind Explorer, touted as the world's first car that runs on wind-generated energy, was tested in Australia. The car travelled from Perth via Adelaide and Melbourne, covering 5,000 km over a three-week period at a cost of barely 16 Australian dollars ($16).

The car that runs on wind-generated energy is a prototype built by Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer over a period of about six months in Germany. It is powered by state of the art lithium-ion batteries that are charged overnight through a mobile wind turbine.

We wanted to prove how good the technology is, Gion told Australian news agency AAP.

There are a lot of sceptical people and we wanted to show them how efficient you can make it.

The carbon emissions-free Wind Explorer is a very compact, low to the ground pod-shaped car that would be dwarfed in size by any ordinary car.

The vehicle attracted curious onlookers during its journey across Australia.

Gion said: Once we explained the technology behind the car and people had a look inside for themselves, everybody liked the idea.

People are ready for this technology. They want to have it and use it.

The prototype has been seriously tested only in Australia so far.

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