A more effective design might be to tow a very thin and light 20 foot trailer of panels. That could work with any EV.
Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge
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Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge
#52Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge
#53> 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 k…
If you are parked outside in the sun, you'll need to spend some amount of energy keeping the battery at a healthy operating temperature.
Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge
#54Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge
#55Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It claims 25 cubit feet which is large but not certainly not huge. It's shaped in such a way that much of that isn't as useful as you'd hope. A fair amount of that area is at or below 12 inches in depth.
it won’t sell if you can’t put a set of golf clubs in it
Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge
#57Honestly, putting solar panels on EVs/plug-ins is one of those ideas that seems out there but is actually really practical even on production cars.
You can fit a solar panels that can produce at least a couple hundred watts peak on most cars, to as much as 1kW on larger ones, and they are dirt cheap. Those produce enough energy to power your daily commute without ever having to plug them in (something most people either can't or won't bother doing).
Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
It claims 25 cubit feet which is large but not certainly not huge. It's shaped in such a way that much of that isn't as useful as you'd hope. A fair amount of that area is at or below 12 inches in depth.
Well, it's not "remodeling your house" big, but in 25 cubic feet you can fit 15-20 cabin size suitcases. That sounds like "family vacations" big.
For a family of two?
Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge
#59seems like an interesting and financially viable concept, just taking a while to get to market
Re: Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, it's not "remodeling your house" big, but in 25 cubic feet you can fit 15-20 cabin size suitcases. That sounds like "family vacations" big.
For a family of two?
I guess it could be a family of four if you have two of them and both parents drive.