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Yep, Rivian has four motors, but they aren't in-wheel motors, but are instead for two motors each paired (a pair for front wheels, a pair for rear wheels) slung low, basically inline with the wheels and towards the middle of the vehicle that drive each wheel via a gear reduction and a fairly long axle.
Okay, so the motors are chassis mounted and they have individual driveshafts running out to the wheels then?
I think for the highway side, mostly stand-alone EV charging stations, this is probably going to end up being part of the standard build. A lot of stations have awnings of sorts for sun and shade as well as a small one-story convenience store, and so I think what will end up making sense with batteries and solar panels going down in price is that the standard build for stand-alone refueling stations is the roofs of both having solar panels and there being a stationary storage battery on location.
They'd still have utility hookup for power, but they'd be able to produce a significant amount of the power needed from solar panels that is used immediately or stored on site with any excess sold back to the grid at peak periods (if there are any) and possibly charging from the grid during the periods when there is the most excess supply over demand so that the financial model for them would be a combination of selling power directly to people charging alongside arbitrage on the electricity market where it's selling at peak time of use costs and buying from the grid when it's lowest (possibly even being paid for storage if large excess supply from the grid), and meanwhile it also provides some redundancy during periods of the grid going down.
I think it's a good idea, and as you say, it doesn't need to provide all the power, all the time, to be very useful. I have seen a large solar panel array over the parking lot at the opthamologist's office (in a large medical building) in South Jersey when I took my Dad there. I don't think they were charging cars with it, I think they were feeding the power into the building, but I think that was a good idea as well. The lot area is already paid for, and the installation actually looked very cool, on a very modern looking steel or aluminum framework - much nicer looking that a plain asphalt parking lot, and it's harvesting energy.
I think it's a good idea, and as you say, it doesn't need to provide all the power, all the time, to be very useful. I have seen a large solar panel array over the parking lot at the opthamologist's office (in a large medical building) in South Jersey when I took my Dad there. I don't think they were charging cars with it, I think they were feeding the power into the building, but I think that was a good idea as well. The lot area is already paid for, and the installation actually looked very cool, on a very modern looking steel or aluminum framework - much nicer looking that a plain asphalt parking lot, and it's harvesting energy.
It's also shade for the car in summer and refuge from snow covering in the winter! It seems like a pretty good idea overall especially if module costs keep going down and permitting becomes more standardized so soft costs also go down.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 10-24-2021 at 06:10 PM..
Perhaps it would pay to install solar panels on the roof of the home to reduce your electricity bill with car charging.
Yep, if you go on somewhat less cranky forums than this one, you'll see that a good chunk of EV owners also have solar panels on their homes which further saves them on refueling. Of course, this is a fairly sizable initial capital cost for a lot of people though there are certain financing options or even government incentives that make it a bit easier.
What makes solar panels on vehicles themselves interesting, even if likely never as cheap per kWh than solar panels on the home, is that they may provide a bit of additional convenience in terms of needing to plug in less often or for shorter periods, some level of protection of coming back to a vehicle with a "dead" battery, and potentially extending the battery life of the vehicle. Also, not everyone has the option of effectively putting solar panels up on their homes.
Yep, if you go on somewhat less cranky forums than this one, you'll see that a good chunk of EV owners also have solar panels on their homes which further saves them on refueling. Of course, this is a fairly sizable initial capital cost for a lot of people though there are certain financing options or even government incentives that make it a bit easier.
What makes solar panels on vehicles themselves interesting, even if likely never as cheap per kWh than solar panels on the home, is that they may provide a bit of additional convenience in terms of needing to plug in less often or for shorter periods, some level of protection of coming back to a vehicle with a "dead" battery, and potentially extending the battery life of the vehicle. Also, not everyone has the option of effectively putting solar panels up on their homes.
I’m not a hardcore environmentalist nor am I completely opposed to energy savings technology. I do everything I can afford to do to reduce home energy use as well as maximize my fuel efficiency in how I drive without inconveniencing other drivers. I wouldn’t mind solar panels for our home but our current energy use is so low it wouldn’t pay for us to get solar panels. Our summer electric bill was about $120. Replaced entire central air unit including air ducts, installed storm windows over existing single pane windows, and all interior and exterior lighting are LED bulbs. Oh, and our electric bill also includes a back yard security light like the street light. It was installed by previous owners. When the light went out we realized why it was installed. The back yard was very dark and the subdivision behind ours is low income FHA homes.
When is it going to be cost effective to have solar panels on electric cars? That way you don't even need to plug it in, you can just let your car sit outside and it'll automatically recharge. It can recharge while you're driving too.
Even if it doesn't recharge as fast as you use the power to drive the car, it could extend the trip mileage before your battery dies.
Bottomline: If there was a good profit in building automobiles with electric panels, that it would be possible. At the moment, No profit = no electric panel. End, finito, fin
Bottomline: If there was a good profit in building automobiles with electric panels, that it would be possible. At the moment, No profit = no electric panel. End, finito, fin
I assume you meant solar panel instead of electric panels on cars?
Hyundai's been selling the Sonata with a solar panel option for a bit. Supposedly the upcoming Ioniq 5 well come with one as well. Then there are the slate of start-ups supposedly releasing a vehicle in the next couple of years with solar panels (namely Aptera, Lightyear, Sono). The Tesla Cybertruck is also supposedly coming with a solar tonneau. The Xpeng P5 also has solar panels though that's unlikely to come to the states anytime soon. Actually, I doubt that Sono will come to the states anytime soon either.
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