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Electric car that charges itself

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Re: Electric car that charges itself

#61

Post by kristopolous »

bartvk wrote: post #40
kristopolous wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's such a silly claim to put on their page. They aren't even available yet. Aptera and Lightyear both have earlier projected delivery dates so even if we are saying "stock consumer car, off the lot, no after market" they're still wrong People who know better are like "no it's not" and people who don't will spread it and be told they're wrong. Solar charging solves the fueling problem for commuters in sunny environm…

You say they aren't even available yet. That may have been acceptable, but they have quite a history of not delivering. Production should have started in 2019, and they have accepted money in 2018. It's now 2021 and we're looking at 2023 delivery, with a significant price increase. In the meantime, the specs aren't all that interesting anymore.

Yeah, delivering the next gen is the big deal here.

Say what you will about next gen EV cars like the three wheeled EM solo, but they're actually shipping and I've even seen two on the street so far.

Lightyear isn't even looking to be US street legal at release. I'm excited about all the cool stuff in the works but let's see it happen.

It'd be kinda ironic if traditional brands like Škoda or BMW get to these milestones with successful launches first. So much for the thesis of Innovators Dilemma

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#62

Post by thombat »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #29
onethought wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. Much better to just not generate any power so that they don’t charge themselves at all and don’t feed anything to the grid.

Much more effective than putting solar panels into the roofs of cars would be putting those same solar panels into solar roofs above parking lots. Much lower installation and maintenance costs.

And now the parking lot has a roof, giving a nicer environment for the drivers and cars.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#63

Post by iso1631 »

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.

Would certainly do me - 3 mile trip to school and back eight times a week to drop the kids off, 50 miles a week, parked on the driveway.

3 million cars in the UK do less than 3000 miles a year, 1.8 million do less than 2000.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#64

Post by thombat »

PicassoCTs wrote: post #45

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.

Would need pretty beefy supports for wind gusts, including coping with gusts during [un]folding

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#65

Post by iso1631 »

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

Rent a car that's delivered to a house reliably available at 8am each morning and 3pm every afternoon, with car seats, when everyone else is after a car at at least one of those times, half a mile from the nearest neighbour, 2 miles from the village, and 7 miles from the nearest town?

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#66

Post by Shivetya »

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.

Sixty nine miles a day and I would be cheering but per week is a non starter. If it were sufficient if you had such low driving needs why would you even have a car in the first place?

What interest me in designs like this is, can it receive sufficient power to overcome battery maintenance in cold weather even while sitting

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#67

Post by iso1631 »

lloeki wrote: post #58
jillesvangurp wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

For some (not that rare) areas, make that: - bus: a few times a week (if at all), because of cost efficiency - taxi: hours, + only if you book at least a day in advance, because they’re just not sitting there waiting for a call, they’re busy towards where people are/go, which is, like, the other way. Throw in no/unstable/limited power grid, and you double down on one of the use cases.

The village 3 miles away has a bus service 5 times a day. My sister lives in a different village. She gets a bus service on Tuesday morning.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#68

Post by iso1631 »

lpcam33 wrote: post #59
bayindirh wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and if I'm going to rent it for 24 hours, why not buy it in the first place?

The environmental cost of making the car takes a reasonable amount of the resources used in is lifecycle. So in the case you only need the car for a few miles a week you should consider alternatives. Maybe village councils should have a car to be shared by all.

What about peak load

You've got 150 people in a village

Half drive, so that's 75

You've got 10% of people who want a car for this sort of distance (3000km), so that's 8. Of those chances are at least some of the time almost all of them will want to use it over the same period. Maybe you can get away with 6 or 7 cars instead of 8, with some risk, but that's not saving much, and you're adding a lot of inconvenience (car won't be in the right place), overhead, and risk (what if you need a car now and there's none available?)

If you want to tackle the externalities of the resources producing the car, tax them at the same rate as taxing other resources.

Of course that's a big village, what about a group of half a dozen isolated houses 2 miles from the village?

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#69

Post by iso1631 »

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.

Then you need the land to install a roof of solarpanels on, which may not be available.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#70

Post by throwaw2934238 »

bayindirh wrote: post #56
mavhc wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Instead, cities should have much better and practical public transport, so I wouldn't need my car in the first place, but it's not possible to plan your day around with flexibility in my city, unless I have my car with me. Otherwise, 15 min trips become 60+ ones which makes everything impossible.

Public transport still doesn't cover all the use cases of a car, such as hauling things and going out into nature. Which is something everyone needs to do.
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