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Electric car that charges itself

sonomotors.com

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Re: Electric car that charges itself

#41

Post by rini17 »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #37
koksik202 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For people using their cars once or twice a week to drive 10km to do groceries this will suit them and with having more housing estate with no basic amenities within walking distance this will defiantly fit families with a main car for work commute and second car for small trips like this while one parent is at work with fossil fueled car

> For people using their cars once or twice a week to drive 10km to do groceries this will suit them Wouldn't they be even better suited to a regular electric car, parked under a roof of solar panels? The simple flat solar roof will be cheaper to make, and be a larger useful surface. And easier to replace, will keep the weather off the car, reduces car weight, etc.

That requires ownership of property. There are plenty of people that, say, rent a basement of a suburban home, park on the street and the owner is not inclined to install solar or provide convenient access to charging. Of course it won't help much but it does.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#42

Post by rini17 »

I would like to have outside solar blind that I can cover front glass with when parking. It would also alleviate heating of the interior somewhat.

But it either need to be flexible (and expensive and prone to damage) or mechanically complicated and bulky, so...no dice.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#43

Post by achow »

mavhc wrote: post #34
jillesvangurp wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of cars don't drive much more than this per week and just sit outside on the drive way or parking lot. They are only used for short trips to work or shops. Solar charging ensures you only rarely have to plug it in to top it up, which is convenient. It also means that if you leave it sitting outside for long periods of time, it will be topped up rather than slightly drained when you get back to it. That convenien…

Those cars shouldn't exist at all though, massive waste of resources, renting cars should be much much simpler and cheaper

Small villages would not have any rentals. Small villages also keep vehicles for emergency - ex. for emergency visits to hospitals at nearest town or city.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#44

Post by marco_craveiro »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #7

This idea will never be practical but it also seems it won't die. 69 miles per week of charging. Assuming the car is sitting outdoors all week and the weather is not cloudy. A Tesla can charge more than this in an hour.

I think in Europe many people (including myself) do less than 69 miles per week. We rely a lot on public transport for commuting and use cars only for a few things during the week. I suspect the target market will be very large here.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#45

Post by PicassoCTs »

Could one install unfoldable solar-surfaces, to increase the input are while parked? Its additional weight and motors after all. In theory though, a car could increase the surface it has to the max allowed volume area of the region?

In germany that would be 2.55 m * 12m - thats 30 m^2.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#46

Post by BrissyCoder »

aemreunal wrote: post #9
BrissyCoder wrote: post #5

This may be a stupid question but given that these cars literally absorb light... do they pose a danger on the roads in terms of visibility to other motorists?

Hah, an interesting question and certainly not stupid at all! A quick Google search [1] suggests that a (standard?) solar panel absorbs ~2/3s of the light, so it probably reflects enough to make out the car on the road. But the question actually becomes valid and important once we discover solar panel material that can absorb even more light (think Vantablack-like absorption). Very good question! [1]: https://news.rp…

Asked the question half in jest, half expecting some interesting answers. A cursory search suggests that darker coloured cars do indeed get in more accidents: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/programs/nsw-country-hour/....

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#47

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

rini17 wrote: post #41
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For people using their cars once or twice a week to drive 10km to do groceries this will suit them Wouldn't they be even better suited to a regular electric car, parked under a roof of solar panels? The simple flat solar roof will be cheaper to make, and be a larger useful surface. And easier to replace, will keep the weather off the car, reduces car weight, etc.

That requires ownership of property. There are plenty of people that, say, rent a basement of a suburban home, park on the street and the owner is not inclined to install solar or provide convenient access to charging. Of course it won't help much but it does.

High-density living requires high-density solutions, e.g. solar on the building roofs.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#48

Post by elihu »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #37
koksik202 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For people using their cars once or twice a week to drive 10km to do groceries this will suit them and with having more housing estate with no basic amenities within walking distance this will defiantly fit families with a main car for work commute and second car for small trips like this while one parent is at work with fossil fueled car

> For people using their cars once or twice a week to drive 10km to do groceries this will suit them Wouldn't they be even better suited to a regular electric car, parked under a roof of solar panels? The simple flat solar roof will be cheaper to make, and be a larger useful surface. And easier to replace, will keep the weather off the car, reduces car weight, etc.

People can do both. It really just comes down to: are the solar panels worth the added manufacturing cost and weight? If it cost ten dollars and added one pound of weight almost everyone would want it. If it cost ten thousand dollars and added a hundred pounds of weight then few people would want it.

The unknowns at this point are: what are people willing to pay and how much additional weight will they tolerate? And, how light and cheap can these panels be made with the technology available now? And whatever these numbers are now, they may change as public opinion, the price of energy, and technology change. It may be too early for this to be a viable product, or maybe not. It's good to see someone is trying it at least.

Also: a solar carport might be technically easier to make, but it will require building permits and probably hiring an electrician and manual labor assembling the structure and so on. And some people don't own the land they park their car on, and many people drive to work and park their car in a lot that either doesn't have solar roofs over the cars or the ones that do use that power to cut down on the company's power bills.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#49

Post by jillesvangurp »

mavhc wrote: post #34
jillesvangurp wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of cars don't drive much more than this per week and just sit outside on the drive way or parking lot. They are only used for short trips to work or shops. Solar charging ensures you only rarely have to plug it in to top it up, which is convenient. It also means that if you leave it sitting outside for long periods of time, it will be topped up rather than slightly drained when you get back to it. That convenien…

Those cars shouldn't exist at all though, massive waste of resources, renting cars should be much much simpler and cheaper

There is no car rental in my parents village and the bus only comes a few times a day. Car sharing works great in bigger cities but is not even an option outside those. I use one in Berlin and have never owned a car actually.

Perfect for people like my mother would be a self driving car that you can summon to your door in a few minutes. But even calling a taxi takes half an hour+. So it would have to be faster than that.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#50

Post by antisthenes »

extrapickles wrote: post #20
BrissyCoder wrote: post #5

This may be a stupid question but given that these cars literally absorb light... do they pose a danger on the roads in terms of visibility to other motorists?

Not any more than a matte black car judging from the photos. Cars are required to have retroreflectors so night-time should not be that big of a problem. The main issue is the extra cost of this worth the 16km (10miles) in range added per day. It produces $1/day in electricity, so it needs to cost less than $2.5k for it to be cheaper than electricity. This is highly dependent on what you pay in electricity (system pr…

> It produces $1/day in electricity

Maybe under ideal conditions, at a very high per KWh price (25c or more). The math would only work in a very sunny place with very expensive electricity (Hawaii, perhaps?)

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