The solar powered DC drive for a rickshaw is an automobile that uses solar energy to drive a DC motor, which in turn move a rickshaw. Due to the challenge of global warming, it has become necessary to make use of power sources that are environmentally friendly or renewable energy. Solar energy is used as the energy source in this design because it is cheap, clean and readily available during the day. This paper employed the use of solar PV which converts the solar energy into electrical energy. The electrical energy generated by the solar PV comes in the rated value of 12 V or 24 V which increases or decreases beyond this rated values depending on the sun intensity. To make use of the varying solar PV voltage, there is need to either buck (stepdown) or boost (step up) or buck-boost (stepdown-step up) the PV voltage to a constant voltage value. Since 12 V DC drive is used, it is required to step up or step down from the voltage range of 10 V to 25 V to 12 V via a buck-boost converter to power the 12 V DC drive. The DC motor control was implemented by embedding the functions of vehicle control in the system. The functions are; run, stop or break, left and right. This function makes the DC drive to control the rickshaw as vehicle. The results shows that rickshaw can be control and driven as a vehicle using solar energy.