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Toyota testing improved solar roof for EVs that can charge while driving

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Re: Toyota testing improved solar roof for EVs that can charge while driving

#171
post #29

I live in a pretty hot city (My car's outside thermometer showed 48°C yesterday at midday). The extended range is nice and all, but if somebody makes a car that can run the AC without running/draining the battery while it's parked, even if it's just a little to keep the car interior at 35°C or so, I would, without exaggeration, buy it the day it's released here. Hell, I'd consider it even if it would just keep the fa…

> The extended range is nice and all, but if somebody makes a car that can run the AC without running/draining the battery while it's parked, even if it's just a little to keep the car interior at 35°C or so, I would, without exaggeration, buy it the day it's released here. Tesla's dog mode does this. Draining the battery isn't really something to worry about; AC uses <300 watts over long periods (turns on and off at…

Tesla also has the milder "Cabin Overheat Protection" that can be turned on in settigns to keep the car interior from going over about 100 degrees fahrenheit.

Re: Toyota testing improved solar roof for EVs that can charge while driving

#172

Does the math check out? You would need about 10kW-h to get the claimed distance, times three for the efficiency (by the way, there are NO mass-produced cells with 34% efficiency; they must be using GaAs or multijunction cells to achieve 34%) means solar input of 30kW-h per day. The projected horizontal area of a Prius is 8m^2 (including the windows) so we need about 4 hours of 1000W/m^2 insolation. Which I guess isn…

I think 10kwh is too generous. I would think ~ 5kwh.

The Tesla model 3 is rated as 237 watt-hours/mile, but this article shows 218 wh/mi at 65mph

https://forum.abetterrouteplanner.com/blogs/entry/13-model-3...

Using that exact figure would require 6kwh, and driving slower would require less.

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