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Electric car that charges itself

sonomotors.com

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Re: Electric car that charges itself

#71

Post by throwaway81523 »

practicalpants wrote: post #60
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.

Charging based on regenerative breaking would probably give a far greater amount of energy than this solar panel approach.

All or almost all electric cars already have regenerative braking. The energy recovered from braking has to come from somewhere. I'm surprised someone is doing this with a car but I've thought it somewhat feasible for a van with a large flat roof. I do wonder if the solar cells will be a theft and vandalism target if the car is left parked outside in public all the time.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#72

Post by AYBABTME »

I like the idea, even if it only replenishes a small range over a week. However this marketing site is too loaded with exaggerations (Sweden is central to Europe?) and feels like a giant ad, cryptocurrency-token-like pitch, trying to hype vaporware. Are they trying to IPO next week via a SPAC?

Anyways my fluff-meter is triggered. Would love to be reassured otherwise because I love the idea even if it's unlikely to live up to the hype they're presenting.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#73

Post by throwaw2934238 »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #49
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

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…

I live in a big city and use car sharing, and I don't think it works great at all. The fundamental problem with it, and the thing that is always overlooked in the calculations of how much time private cars are unused, is that everyone wants the cars at the same time. Mornings + afternoons (commute times) and weekends. Also highly depending on the weather, which means even planning a day ahead is very hard. If it's sunday afternoon and the weather is nice, good luck finding a free car in the car sharing.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#75

Post by extropy »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #33
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.

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…

In this case it's way cheaper to put those panels on your house.

No weight or vibration requirements, can use the electricity for your house too.

The only downside is you need to plug in.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#76

Post by gjs278 »

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.

no because then I would have to sit next to unstable homeless people. pass

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#77

Post by bayindirh »

throwaw2934238 wrote: post #70
bayindirh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Public transport still doesn't cover all the use cases of a car.

Of course. OTOH, Instead of using my car, congesting traffic and spewing smoke from my back twice everyday, I'd only use my car whenever I need it for these heavy tasks.

Then, use public transport most of the time which possibly runs on electric and do a little more walking every day.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#78

Post by Geee »

It makes very little sense to be lugging solar panels around. It's just not worth it. Install them at home and charge. It might make sense if your vehicle is large and mostly stationary in remote locations where electricity is not available.

Anyway, I think this product is fake and scam.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#80

Post by throwaw2934238 »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #33
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.

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…

I also think these cars would be great, and have a lot of peoples needs covered, me for example. I don't understand this sentiment in the debate of electric cars, how all of them need to cover the most extreme edge case of long mileage users, and if they don't, the whole idea should be scrapped. Why? Let's build a few different cars with different ranges to suit peoples different needs, what's the problem with that, I don't understand why there is such a black and white reasoning around this.
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