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Electric car that charges itself

sonomotors.com

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Re: Electric car that charges itself

#391

Post by hansel_der »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #386
hnuser123456 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the US but have a 2 mile commute each way, and I don't drive to work every day (pre-covid). Uncommon but I'm not alone. - For me, 5 miles a day would keep the battery topped off and I wouldn't have to visit a charger except on longer trips. - Would also be much more palatable to limit the full-charge voltage to something a little lower, prolonging the battery's useful life, knowing it'll passively recharge dai…

Those are all very real and legit advantages, but they are also very tiny, and for a very small subset of usecases of the car - where it is parked for most of a month, and only used for a couple of days here and there, and only for short trips, in a very sunny country, that also has bad infrastructure in terms of garages and charging (otherwise you just plug it in and forget about it), and yet where you actually have…

idk but from ppl i know the vast majority of car usage is for short trips like shopping/childcare/deliveries.

even a small ammount of self charging would go a very long way to make the car more pleasent to use.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#392

Post by hansel_der »

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…

agree this feature is mindlessly put down.

myself and lot of ppl i know would be very interested in a car that basically charges itself when used only a couple times a week for short trips.

not for the electricy cost but mainly for the convenience.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#393

Post by iso1631 »

ogre_codes wrote: post #347
iso1631 wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case, it's not every day, it's narrow country lanes, it rains, it involves transporting kids and equipment. You seem to be claiming it's better to travel 50 miles a day by car than 10 miles a day, which is clearly wrong.

> You seem to be claiming it's better to travel 50 miles a day by car than 10 miles a day, which is clearly wrong. I don’t understand at all how you interpret what I said to mean this.

You're saying that "Pushing around a big car to travel what is essentially walking distance is a waste"

Order these in desirability:

1) Not travelling 2) Travelling by car for 2 miles 3) Travelling by car for 20 miles 4) Travelling by car for 200 miles

I've already done it. In no world is it better to own a car and travel 200 miles than it is to own the same car and travel 20 miles. In all worlds it's better to not travel at all.

You are saying that "you shouldn't drive 3 miles". Unless you are also saying "you shouldn't drive 30 miles" and "you shouldn't drive 300 miles" you're being a hipocritte.

The reason I'm such a fan of taxes on externalities is to stop micromanagers saying "you shouldn't do that specific journey in that specific way", and instead give financial incentivies to do the right thing.

If the lifecycle of a car that lasts say 150,000 miles costs $5k in externalities up front and $15k in externalities, then charge those externalities -- $5k on the purchase price, then 10c per mile.

Even in a situation where the first 2 miles costs more per mile (because in an ICE the engine needs to warm up), then charge 20c for the first 2 miles and 10c after that. Someone doing 2 miles will pay 40c, someone doing 20 miles will pay $2.20.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#394

Post by hourislate »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #388
hourislate wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trailer manufacturers could make all trailers solar (panels on the roof of the trailer) and have a battery pack somewhere in the area a refer unit would sit. This way you could power the refer if there was one or the the Truck if there was no refer unit and the Truck was electric. They become a energy storage unit while not in use (sitting in lots). I think this is what we'll see when there will be more Electric Semi…

In a fantasy world unrestricted by physics and market and costs and raw materials, - yes, they could.

Wabash is already pivoting to special composites to lighten trailers for EV Tractors. I'm sure as new technology makes itself available they will start to think about solarizing their trailers. Right now they run their refers off of propane, switching to battery/electric would be a welcomed change. A trailer can spends days to weeks and even a month in a yard waiting for a tractor and could possibly charge a very large battery in that time. As a side note they could also add regenerative braking to the trailer axles.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#395

Post by Erlich_Bachman »

hourislate wrote: post #394
Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a fantasy world unrestricted by physics and market and costs and raw materials, - yes, they could.

Wabash is already pivoting to special composites to lighten trailers for EV Tractors. I'm sure as new technology makes itself available they will start to think about solarizing their trailers. Right now they run their refers off of propane, switching to battery/electric would be a welcomed change. A trailer can spends days to weeks and even a month in a yard waiting for a tractor and could possibly charge a very lar…

> A trailer can spends days to weeks and even a month in a yard waiting for a tractor

Imagine what a similar investment in a stationary solar panel in that same yard would yield, a panel that will charge 100% of time.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#396

Post by hourislate »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #395
hourislate wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wabash is already pivoting to special composites to lighten trailers for EV Tractors. I'm sure as new technology makes itself available they will start to think about solarizing their trailers. Right now they run their refers off of propane, switching to battery/electric would be a welcomed change. A trailer can spends days to weeks and even a month in a yard waiting for a tractor and could possibly charge a very lar…

> A trailer can spends days to weeks and even a month in a yard waiting for a tractor Imagine what a similar investment in a stationary solar panel in that same yard would yield, a panel that will charge 100% of time.

>Imagine what a similar investment in a stationary solar panel in that same yard would yield, a panel that will charge 100% of time.

That will have to be rolled out by the yards not the manufacturers of trailers. Trailers are leased as very few companies buy them.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#397

Post by ryathal »

Twirrim wrote: post #255
dmos62 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's absolute best case for panels producing peak power at all daylight hours. 500 miles/year is more likely for a car parked outdoors away from shade during all daylight hours, based solely on panels not being at peak production. Then there are cloudy days, shaded spots, garages, tunnels, overpasses, dirt, bird poop. Then there is the difference between estimated miles and actual miles based on real driving habits. Then you have to consider any potential body damage that could occur, that will at best reduce the solar gains and at worst render the system useless or total the car.

If a car in a real scenario get more than 3% of it's miles from these panels I would be surprised.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#398

Post by ryathal »

silvestrov wrote: post #292
IkmoIkmo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure where the 69 figure comes from. Top post has more info: > As a back of the envelope calculation, if you covered the ~2.44 m2 roof of a VW ID3 with solar panels you'd probably see somewhere in the region of 244 kWh / year (based on typical UK solar panel generation per year - this would be more in a sunny place). At 4.3 miles/kWh that gives you just over 1000 miles / year of self charged driving. The 4.3 is p…

The average miles per day does not matter. It does not need to be usefull to everybody before it is useful to anybody . What matters is the lowest 25% percentile. Getting 25% of the market is enough.

The market for people who drive less than 100 miles/week isn't a good target. You have way to much completion from existing stock. There are tons of $10k or less cars out there that will always be a better option than the sticker price of this car.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#399

Post by Dylan16807 »

iso1631 wrote: post #68
lpcam33 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 (ca…

Sure, if peak load is 90% of users wanting to go on long distance trips simultaneously then it doesn't work out.

Why would peak load be that high, though?

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#400

Post by jiofih »

meragrin_ wrote: post #270
jiofih wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you look at the URL posted at all? The car is in final design stages, has enough cells to deliver 250km of range per week.

> Did you look at the URL posted at all? The car is in final design stages, has enough cells to deliver 250km of range per week. ... in June IF YOU ARE REALLY REALLY LUCKY AND PARK IN FULL SUN. Full sun in June, no thanks. How much of that will be eaten up by the extra cooling necessary?

None, especially in Europe where the full summer sun barely sings.
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