Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
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Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
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Re: Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
#2Solar panels as (essentially) bodywork seems like it would be less than ideal in actual use. Fender bender? Car got dirty?
Re: Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
#3Solar panels as (essentially) bodywork seems like it would be less than ideal in actual use. Fender bender? Car got dirty?
Seems like things car owners worry about no matter what; even if the materials have no possibility of output.
Re: Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
#4Solar panels as (essentially) bodywork seems like it would be less than ideal in actual use. Fender bender? Car got dirty?
On a 24k car they've either gotten the price of the body panels pretty low or this is a loss leader. my hope is the former. If this car can live up to its promise this is exactly what I want as a city dweller that drives 200 miles a week.
Re: Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
#5This has always seemed like the most stupid-obvious idea to me. It's amazing to see some recent examples getting closer to production! There are also mod kits available for some EVs which allow you to attach solar body panels that charge the propulsion batteries. And we have some examples of fully solar-powered EVs that have empowered nomads to travel the world without refueling or charging from electric grids. The fact that this is not already normal is insane.
Re: Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
#6Solar cars are scam. They are designed to get funding out of investors with poor understanding of technology.
Do some basic math. The electric energy harvested with the solar panels is negligible for transportation.
And why should we want to move around solar power plants? It makes much more sense to have them stationary. And to connect them to the power grid to sell the energy to others when the sun shines but the batteries are full.
Re: Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
#7This has always seemed like the most stupid-obvious idea to me. It's amazing to see some recent examples getting closer to production! There are also mod kits available for some EVs which allow you to attach solar body panels that charge the propulsion batteries. And we have some examples of fully solar-powered EVs that have empowered nomads to travel the world without refueling or charging from electric grids. The f…
How are people traveling the world with "up to 40 miles per day in optimal sun conditions"?
Re: Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
#8This has always seemed like the most stupid-obvious idea to me. It's amazing to see some recent examples getting closer to production! There are also mod kits available for some EVs which allow you to attach solar body panels that charge the propulsion batteries. And we have some examples of fully solar-powered EVs that have empowered nomads to travel the world without refueling or charging from electric grids. The f…
Lots of extra cost + weight + complexity for marginal benefit. In very specific scenarios it makes sense, but it's usually better to just put the panels on your roof. Most people when shopping for EVs are concerned primarily about single charge range, which solar panels don't really help with. I'm interested to see what these companies come up with, but the proof will come if these companies are still around in 5-10 years.
Re: Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
#9Solar panels as (essentially) bodywork seems like it would be less than ideal in actual use. Fender bender? Car got dirty?
Your criticisms aren't the primary problem against solar.
Fender bender? I had a lady back into my challenger, plain unpainted black plastic was $3000. Sure I didn't pay... but in terms of solar panel. Cant be worse.
Dirty? An actual excuse to wash your car for legitimate benefit? In terms of power production if not, should be fairly minimal reduction with exception of bad conditions like winter.
The actual reason why its bad and elon musk talked about it. Jehu garcia has a good video. omg 8 year old video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg_7rJs8hLs
Basically the power you can harvest isn't much. Even with the large flat roof of the samba. flipside, bad because the flat nose of the samba.
But lets say it works for you. you drive 2km to work and park in a sunny parking lot all day. It's not just expensive solar panels. It's the charge controller, it's the battery bms, its all these things you need to upgrade. These aren't trivial upgrades. The cost to integrate into a controller system like a tesla would double or triple the cost. solid state AC controllers are really expensive to beginwith. So in order to integrate solar into a tesla with their high power. It doesnt make sense. Take the money and put it in more battery or just charge off the cheap grid.
Flipside. Aptera did something slightly different. They are tremendously lightweight and aerodynamic. It lets them have low power to high performance. So in effect they have an equivalency to tesla in terms of power, but solar is handled.
What OP did was different since its not aerodynamic nor lightweight. They are VERY low powered. Their 0-60 times requires a calendar, not a stop watch.
Worse yet, there's not much you can really change here. There's no major breakthrough in technology which really changes this. There's really just not that much power even if you had 100% efficient solar panels. The solar state controllers are practically unimprovable, maybe room temp super conductors will help?
Re: Solar car just toured the US, and will start production next year
#10This has always seemed like the most stupid-obvious idea to me. It's amazing to see some recent examples getting closer to production! There are also mod kits available for some EVs which allow you to attach solar body panels that charge the propulsion batteries. And we have some examples of fully solar-powered EVs that have empowered nomads to travel the world without refueling or charging from electric grids. The f…
How are people traveling the world with "up to 40 miles per day in optimal sun conditions"?
They didn't say how long it would take...