Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

aptera.us

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 60 posts

Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

#11

Post by russdill »

arrakark wrote: post #3

I think Aptera's vision is fantastic. People are quick to judge the looks or three-wheelness of the car, but I think that's just a symptom of cars being marketed as status symbols nowadays. I am worried about production. With all of the years it's taking them to get there, they can run out of money at any time it seems. It's unknown if they can raise enough money on their terms to get this thing to production.

If you're traveling 300 miles, cargo capacity is pretty important. I feel like this is sacrificing a great deal of what people actually need for a "feature" that is a bit of a solution in search of a problem.

Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

#12

Post by pinkmuffinere »

> Even on an overcast day, the team saw over 545 watts of solar input

Let’s (generously) assume that was the minimum they saw, and let’s (generously) say they charged for 14 hours. That’s 7.63 kWh gained over the day, in almost ideal conditions. Flagstaff’s high altitude means stronger sunlight, and they can do regenerative braking as they come down the mountain. In my Nissan leaf, 6 kWh would get me about 20 miles. If they are much more efficient, they maybe got 50 miles from the charging on that day, and the other 250 from the charge they started with.

I’d love to be wrong about any of the above! Solar panels on cars would be so cool! It just doesn’t seem useful. Please correct me if I’m mistaken.

Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

#13

Post by trhway »

300-545 watts. Aptera gets 8 miles/KWh (to compare - my Prius and other EV cars get about 3+ miles/KWh). So they get 2.5-4.5 miles from an hour under the Sun. So 20-40 miles during the time of commute and while parked at work.

So, yes, that Trump's idea he expressed in the interview to Musk back then to plaster cars with solar panels isn't totally meaningless, at least in theory - you can have 2-3x solar panels on regular car compare to Aptera, so it would have made sense for daily commute if that plastering of the cars cost close to nothing, and unfortunately putting such thing in production would add thousands to the car cost, and given that even Musk/Tesla with their pile of cash available to dump into engineering of such a new feature haven't yet ventured into it it suggests that at least near future isn't bright for it.

Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

#14

Post by gpm »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #12

> Even on an overcast day, the team saw over 545 watts of solar input Let’s (generously) assume that was the minimum they saw, and let’s (generously) say they charged for 14 hours. That’s 7.63 kWh gained over the day, in almost ideal conditions. Flagstaff’s high altitude means stronger sunlight, and they can do regenerative braking as they come down the mountain. In my Nissan leaf, 6 kWh would get me about 20 miles.…

For roadtrips, you're absolutely right.

The average car travels less than 50 miles on the average day though (more like 30 I believe). This means you don't have to charge except on roadtrips (provided you can park outside in the sun, and don't drive more than average. The battery can provide some smoothing out of day-to-day variability though).

Whether not having to plug in at home is particularly useful... hard to know if it's something consumers want.

Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

#15

Post by LeoPanthera »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #12

> Even on an overcast day, the team saw over 545 watts of solar input Let’s (generously) assume that was the minimum they saw, and let’s (generously) say they charged for 14 hours. That’s 7.63 kWh gained over the day, in almost ideal conditions. Flagstaff’s high altitude means stronger sunlight, and they can do regenerative braking as they come down the mountain. In my Nissan leaf, 6 kWh would get me about 20 miles.…

50 miles of free driving a day sounds incredible, but you're implying that's a bad thing? I'm confused.

Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

#16

Post by KeplerBoy »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #12

> Even on an overcast day, the team saw over 545 watts of solar input Let’s (generously) assume that was the minimum they saw, and let’s (generously) say they charged for 14 hours. That’s 7.63 kWh gained over the day, in almost ideal conditions. Flagstaff’s high altitude means stronger sunlight, and they can do regenerative braking as they come down the mountain. In my Nissan leaf, 6 kWh would get me about 20 miles.…

Have you looked at the thing? I wouldn't be surprised if it's an order of magnitude more efficient than most electric cars out there.

Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

#17

Post by milleramp »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #12

> Even on an overcast day, the team saw over 545 watts of solar input Let’s (generously) assume that was the minimum they saw, and let’s (generously) say they charged for 14 hours. That’s 7.63 kWh gained over the day, in almost ideal conditions. Flagstaff’s high altitude means stronger sunlight, and they can do regenerative braking as they come down the mountain. In my Nissan leaf, 6 kWh would get me about 20 miles.…

Yes also any one with a ev knows speed matters. Its not stated how long it took or average speed over the course. Not to mention a nice draft from the film car. Besides all that I would still love to have one.

Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

#18

Post by skykooler »

russdill wrote: post #11
arrakark wrote: post #3

I think Aptera's vision is fantastic. People are quick to judge the looks or three-wheelness of the car, but I think that's just a symptom of cars being marketed as status symbols nowadays. I am worried about production. With all of the years it's taking them to get there, they can run out of money at any time it seems. It's unknown if they can raise enough money on their terms to get this thing to production.

If you're traveling 300 miles, cargo capacity is pretty important. I feel like this is sacrificing a great deal of what people actually need for a "feature" that is a bit of a solution in search of a problem.

The trunk in the Aptera is actually pretty huge, it's like six feet deep. What's mainly sacrificed is passenger capacity since it's only a 2-seater.

Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

#20

Post by zdragnar »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #12

> Even on an overcast day, the team saw over 545 watts of solar input Let’s (generously) assume that was the minimum they saw, and let’s (generously) say they charged for 14 hours. That’s 7.63 kWh gained over the day, in almost ideal conditions. Flagstaff’s high altitude means stronger sunlight, and they can do regenerative braking as they come down the mountain. In my Nissan leaf, 6 kWh would get me about 20 miles.…

Their marketing and reserve page claims "up to 40 miles per day": https://aptera.us/vehicle/
Post reply on HN