11–20 of 55 posts
Has no one done the math on this? Isn't it clearly a horrible idea, based on how much energy is available from the sun over a few square meters if car, versus the amount of energy cars use? I guess if you live in the desert, and every week you park your car for 6 days and drive 1 day.
It's for sure a Nikola Motors situation.
But few people will want to drop XX,000 for a car that they have to leave outside all the time.
Speaking as a person who parks his 2007 Camry under a tree every day.
Has no one done the math on this? Isn't it clearly a horrible idea, based on how much energy is available from the sun over a few square meters if car, versus the amount of energy cars use? I guess if you live in the desert, and every week you park your car for 6 days and drive 1 day.
I drive a Nissan Leaf. It gets 5.5 mi per kWh in the summer, 4.8 in the winter. My commute is about 7 miles 1-way. So less than 3kWh used daily assuming I just commute.
They have a 1kW solar panel on their car. If I had a car with the efficiency of my Leaf that charged from a 1kW panel every day, it's conceivable that for my specific use case I would rarely ever charge.
That said I don't think my case is typical and I am not a large enough market segment to cater to. Nor would I ever trade my dirt-cheap Leaf for whatever exorbitant price these things will cost.
I keenly await the Thunderf00t debunking video. There is no way a roof solar panel would enable you to "drive for months".
FYI: Solar-powered race cars can go 88km/h: https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-technology/world%C...
Having said that, if you throw in the required safety features and basic creature comforts of a modern car that's going to add a lot of weight but I wouldn't be surprised if such a purely solar-powered car could reach ~30MPH (with a 0-30 time of like 30 seconds =)
With the right balance of batteries-to-weight I wouldn't be surprised if you only needed to charge the car for like 8 hours to get 100 miles of range at highway driving speeds (on a sunny day with solar assist). The 1000-mile range is probably only possible if you're doing like 30MPH with the wind at your back with the sun beating down the entire time.
Has no one done the math on this? Isn't it clearly a horrible idea, based on how much energy is available from the sun over a few square meters if car, versus the amount of energy cars use? I guess if you live in the desert, and every week you park your car for 6 days and drive 1 day.
Depending on the specific use case, it may not be terrible. I drive a Nissan Leaf. It gets 5.5 mi per kWh in the summer, 4.8 in the winter. My commute is about 7 miles 1-way. So less than 3kWh used daily assuming I just commute. They have a 1kW solar panel on their car. If I had a car with the efficiency of my Leaf that charged from a 1kW panel every day, it's conceivable that for my specific use case I would rarely…