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Electric car that charges itself

sonomotors.com

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Re: Electric car that charges itself

#251

Post by rbanffy »

coldcode wrote: post #215
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.

For a site devoted to people who love technology this is short sighted thinking. People thought the iPhone was a gimmick too that would never sell. You are looking at a development model of an idea: what happen 10 years down the road when solar technology improves like everything else and becomes light and more efficient. People thought Tesla would never work as well when it started. People thought Ford would never s…

> People thought the iPhone was a gimmick too

Industry experts thought the iPhone was a gimmick.

I still remember "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame"

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#252

Post by Qwertious »

mavhc wrote: post #144
rythie wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how it works, it's based on the date of the solar installation, not when the house was built.

But why didn't the owner install solar back then?

Who cares? Statistically most houses in most places don't have solar. No amount of justification or argument will go back in time and retroactively change that historical fact.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#253

Post by sneak »

agumonkey wrote: post #226
40four wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This topic came up on the recent Joe Rogan with Elon Musk. Elon said they considered it, but in the end it is just not worth it. He said there is just not enough surface area on a car to contribute a worthwhile amount of electricity. The numbers quoted for this particular vehicle are very optimistic I think. If you’re lucky, you might get 5 miles a day out of it. What happens if it’s cloudy or rainy for a week? Or yo…

He didn't mention the semi ? The large flat area, long time under the sun, difference of market (no need to integrate it pretty, a simple flatbed on top would do)

Semis use immensely more power than passenger cars, way more, proportionately, than is made up in increased surface area for solar.

It still doesn't work.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#254

Post by keanebean86 »

senectus1 wrote: post #36
keanebean86 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never seen one.

surely you jest?

Oh yeah it's a joke. It was such a perfect setup I couldn't resist. My grandma had a black t-top in the late 90s. Somewhat ironically, considering this comment thread, it was rear ended at a stop light during the day.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#255

Post by Twirrim »

dmos62 wrote: post #190
samcheng wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an electric car driver, and I'm still skeptical. It's hard to imagine a scenario where I accidentally run out of batteries and then can afford to wait for MULTIPLE DAYS before finishing my trip. Pretty sure I'd at least want to get a tow to the nearest gas station, where they would be able to plug me in if necessary. Even a plain old 120V 15A plug has much more power than solar, and works overnight...

It's not about substituting charging stations. It's about getting _part_ of your energy requirements from the panels. Check the figures in the grandfather comment: energy gains are in the ballpark of 1000 miles / year.

> energy gains are in the ballpark of 1000 miles / year

That's not a small amount. The US DoT puts average US driving at around 13,500 miles/year. In Germany (Sono Motor's home market) it's 8,000.

So we're talking meeting nearly 7.5% of US, and 12.5% of German, average driving needs. Just from sticking a solar panel on the roof of a vehicle.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#256

Post by JKCalhoun »

40four wrote: post #220
leoedin wrote: post #106

It's easy to dismiss this as green washing, but there is some value to it for city cars. The amount of electricity generated is never going to be enough to fully power the car, but that's not really the point. If having solar panels on your car roof means you can avoid charging much in summer, that will make owning an electric car for people who live in cities much simpler - and so support adoption. As a back of the…

This topic came up on the recent Joe Rogan with Elon Musk. Elon said they considered it, but in the end it is just not worth it. He said there is just not enough surface area on a car to contribute a worthwhile amount of electricity. The numbers quoted for this particular vehicle are very optimistic I think. If you’re lucky, you might get 5 miles a day out of it. What happens if it’s cloudy or rainy for a week? Or yo…

A cheap, easy to set up solar car port in the driveway would make more sense for suburban dwellers. Guessing HOA's would lose their shit though.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#257

Post by MrRiddle »

samcheng wrote: post #170
gnramires wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, I were once skeptical (remembering EEVBlog's Solar Roadways series) but it really seems a good deal. Short commutes in cities can probably be covered. And a killer feature to me: if you ever get stranded somewhere without power, you at least have the option to wait a day or two to charge and get to somewhere nearby with power (around 3 miles/day for ioniq, 10 miles/day average for sion according to the articl…

I'm an electric car driver, and I'm still skeptical. It's hard to imagine a scenario where I accidentally run out of batteries and then can afford to wait for MULTIPLE DAYS before finishing my trip. Pretty sure I'd at least want to get a tow to the nearest gas station, where they would be able to plug me in if necessary. Even a plain old 120V 15A plug has much more power than solar, and works overnight...

Imagine you go to a coastal area for vacation, and have a turbo charger 50 miles away. If you go around visiting beaches every day 10-20km away, it might remove the need to go to a super charger.

It might not be practical to plug in a place you’re staying at.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#258

Post by bdamm »

stonemetal12 wrote: post #194
samcheng wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an electric car driver, and I'm still skeptical. It's hard to imagine a scenario where I accidentally run out of batteries and then can afford to wait for MULTIPLE DAYS before finishing my trip. Pretty sure I'd at least want to get a tow to the nearest gas station, where they would be able to plug me in if necessary. Even a plain old 120V 15A plug has much more power than solar, and works overnight...

The only plus I can see is that if you leave your car at the airport for a week or some other long term parking situation, you don't come back to a dead battery.

Normal EVs can sit for a week and not have a dead battery. There is some value to having that trickle charge but not a ton. IIRC there was a solar powered Prius where the panel powered a cabin fan and that kinda makes sense.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#259

Post by mikestew »

leoedin wrote: post #106

It's easy to dismiss this as green washing, but there is some value to it for city cars. The amount of electricity generated is never going to be enough to fully power the car, but that's not really the point. If having solar panels on your car roof means you can avoid charging much in summer, that will make owning an electric car for people who live in cities much simpler - and so support adoption. As a back of the…

If having solar panels on your car roof means you can avoid charging much in summer

Some variation of this comes up every time: “but even a little bit helps” without knowing how little it is. I’ve got a Nissan Leaf. I’ve also got an RV with 400W of solar on top. That’s enough solar to keep things running all day on a reasonably sunny day. Unless you want to run the 1100W microwave, which you can run for fifteen or twenty minutes before you get to start over. Or you could drive an electric car for five minutes.

All this “doing the math” assumes perfect efficiency, blah, blah, to barely come out making it maybe kinda worth it. In the real world of cloudy days and off-angle sunlight, you’re better off having a sun roof put in and charging off your home’s solar panel. Or to put it more bluntly, until solar panel efficiency goes way up, panels on top of the vehicle is just dumb.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#260

Post by Qwertious »

majewsky wrote: post #86
throwaw2934238 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

You're misrepresenting the current argument. This is not about "electric cars will never be viable", the current argument is "this particular electric car has significant downsides and nearly no advantages compared to existing electric cars".

>You're misrepresenting the current argument.

It's not talking about the current argument. It's saying the current argument shares the property of arguing against the use-cases of people outside the target demographic.

People who argue "electric cars will never be viable" (and not anyone in this thread) commonly complain about lack of supercharging speed, despite that being a feature that most people (and all initial adopters) will only use once or twice a year, if ever. This will not be a problem for a long time, as right now only ~1% of car users have an EV and that won't be a major problem until we start running out of ICE car-owning EV buyers who don't need that, which is at least at the 50% mark.

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