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All-new solar-powered 'city car' is coming to the U.S. – it costs $6,250

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Re: All-new solar-powered 'city car' is coming to the U.S. – it costs $6,250

#31

Basically a golf cart that with a max speed of 28 mph. Perfect for golf club retirees, but not the 99% of US consumers.

Why is the being downvoted? This is basically what it is. You can put lipstick on it but it’s basically a golf cart. Golf carts and that whole style of vehicle is a valid alternative for cities. I still prefer bikes but I would use a golf cart based transport network if it was safe and I didn’t have to share the road with gigantic 8000 lb suvs driven by people who keep missing their anger management appointments. The…

Because it's being used as an (unoriginal) term of abuse.

Re: All-new solar-powered 'city car' is coming to the U.S. – it costs $6,250

#32
I'm sorry, but it's a press release about potential expansion plans, the website is full of typos and they haven't started production yet... I'm skeptical.

If anyone's curious about the legal aspect - it's basically a golf cart with a solar panel on top and that's more or less how it would be classified in the US, not as a car but as a NEV like the GEM EVs that are already common across the US for meter maids/security/etc. If you want one badly you can just buy a GEM NEV and slap a solar panel on the roof.

The problem with these to me is the cost, this thing claims to cost 9300 euros+21% BTW = 11.2k euros = 11.8k usd for the first 100 built when and if they make them. $12k is about double $6k, sorry, and for $12k you can buy an actual car that has A/C and real heat and goes more than 28mph. If you're using one of these in NYC, for example, it's pretty crappy in the winter and summer (the entire 3 kWh battery will be eaten up by one hour of heating or two of cooling in that small metal greenhouse) and of course the trips where it would be most useful for (between Manhattan and Brooklyn/Queens) it is legally and practically prohibited from.

The other problem, of course, is solar panels on a car in a city. I have actually done this (!) and even if you are conscientious about not parking under trees etc you often get days with very little production because of other obstructions - high buildings, other things parked or moved nearby, street signs shading your panels... you often only have peak output for a few hours tops and a few simple things can totally ruin those peak hours. I estimate that this thing has 300W of panel on it - Realistically with that 300Wp and VERY conscientious parking you would average maybe 560 Wh/day in NYC in August with a peak of maybe 1.5 kWh. Keep in mind this eliminates about 3/4 of parking spaces so there goes a lot of the advantages of this thing. That 560Wh/day is about 8km per day at their ~15 km/kWh rate. That's peak sun months. In the winter you will have to use on-street EV charging for this thing which will get kind of annoying with a small battery and the high draw of the heater.

It's a shame, because I think there's a lot of people who would be willing to look past the safety, the comfort or other parts of this if it was practical for the kind of short trips people would use it for, but it seems to be _just_ barely suboptimal. For the price you can buy a much more comfortable used car that just works, goes where you need it, heats and cools you, and if you're truly using it so little will cost very little in gas. I could see it working in a year-round mild climate with good sun but that doesn't describe a ton of US cities.

Eventually, though, the cost of all of this will fall, batteries and solar will improve, and we'll get there... but today? I don't quite see these things taking off. I'd love to be proven wrong, though.

Re: All-new solar-powered 'city car' is coming to the U.S. – it costs $6,250

#33
post #3

A good counterweight to the seemingly common view that anything smaller than a tank and cannot do 60mph backwards is emasculating. There are too many large, heavy, dangerous, expensive 'cars' on the roads everywhere in the world. I can drive. I do not own a car, and I have set up my life not to need one (nor nee to fill my brain with rubbish about insurance etc), but I would consider one of these. I could even charge…

This will not change without laws.

People want big cars, for ego, for convenience, for perceived safety.

The US, for decades now, has laws on the books which make it more cost effective for manufacturers to make big, heavy cars. Look up the light truck exemption.

If everyone drives a huge car, you begin to feel less safe in a normal sized car. This means that even people who wouldn't normally drive a truck or SUV begin gravitating towards them because they don't want to turn into pink paste when a 19 year old phone addicted driver in a Ram 3500 slams into them going 60mph on a residential road.

Re: All-new solar-powered 'city car' is coming to the U.S. – it costs $6,250

#34
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is the being downvoted? This is basically what it is. You can put lipstick on it but it’s basically a golf cart. Golf carts and that whole style of vehicle is a valid alternative for cities. I still prefer bikes but I would use a golf cart based transport network if it was safe and I didn’t have to share the road with gigantic 8000 lb suvs driven by people who keep missing their anger management appointments. The…

Because it's being used as an (unoriginal) term of abuse.

How is the term abusive?
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