solar panels and electric cars (windshield, unlimited, credit, diesel)
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These roll out, on either side of the vehicle if wanted and possibly with a separate rooftop mounted solar panel, and provide shade for next to the vehicle as well as a pretty decent amount of power. It'll be even more interesting once there are actually solid BEVs to use as a basis for a RV.
Toyota just announced specs for its bz4x crossover. The Subaru Solterra should have essentially the same specs, and it wouldn't be too unlikely for there to be a Lexus variant at some point I'm guessing.
Relevant to this thread is the solar panel option which supposedly adds up to 1118 miles per year or just a smidge over 3 miles per day on average.
Toyota released more details today:
- FWD with single 150 kW motor or AWD with two 80 kW motors (160 kW combined)
- 71.4 kWh battery
- projected WLTP range of 311 miles for FWD, 286 miles for AWD
- 0-62 mph in 8.4 seconds for FWD, 7.7 AWD
- AC charging 6.6 kW
- DC charging max 150 kW
- heat pump
- steering yoke option using steer-by-wire
- solar panel option projected to add up to 1118 miles per year
No pricing information so far which would be key to how well this does. There's no pushing the boundaries for EVs here, but it's overall a pretty sensible and capable spec sheet.
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.
Yes, you are correct. Solar panels
There has to be a profit to be made for the shareholders to invest. For example, the cellphone market: in this case cellphone makers have no choice but to increase the incorporation of more bells and whistles into their phones in order to sell their phones. The same is happening in the digital camera, and automobile market. A lot of people are attracted by the latest bells and whistles, and that's what drives the market.
Incorporating solar panels can be difficult and costly since it affects aerodynamics, and don't yield a lot of electricity if installed on automobiles (solar panels take a lot of room).
Toyota just announced specs for its bz4x crossover. The Subaru Solterra should have essentially the same specs, and it wouldn't be too unlikely for there to be a Lexus variant at some point I'm guessing.
Relevant to this thread is the solar panel option which supposedly adds up to 1118 miles per year or just a smidge over 3 miles per day on average.
Toyota released more details today:
- FWD with single 150 kW motor or AWD with two 80 kW motors (160 kW combined)
- 71.4 kWh battery
- projected WLTP range of 311 miles for FWD, 286 miles for AWD
- 0-62 mph in 8.4 seconds for FWD, 7.7 AWD
- AC charging 6.6 kW
- DC charging max 150 kW
- heat pump
- steering yoke option using steer-by-wire
- solar panel option projected to add up to 1118 miles per year
No pricing information so far which would be key to how well this does. There's no pushing the boundaries for EVs here, but it's overall a pretty sensible and capable spec sheet.
Those specs sound pretty good, competitive, but not really exceeding specs for some other compact crossover EVs that are coming out earlier, like the Tesla Model Y or Hyundai Ioniq 5. Toyota has done solar panels before on the Prius. These still don't sound very compelling... that sounds like 3 miles per day (1118 mi/yr).
Those specs sound pretty good, competitive, but not really exceeding specs for some other compact crossover EVs that are coming out earlier, like the Tesla Model Y or Hyundai Ioniq 5.
Yea, definitely not spectacular specs--pretty good, not exceeding is almost the Toyota motto. I think if this were to stand out from the pack, then it'd have to be on pricing which hasn't been announced yet. It'll be interesting if Toyota somehow manages to offer this for a decent price with under $40K and closer to $30K being pretty good and under $30K would probably dominate the market.
Great for accessories and other non-drivetrain functions............but a small drop in the bucket when it comes to
charging/recharging a drivetrain-battery.
These roll out, on either side of the vehicle if wanted and possibly with a separate rooftop mounted solar panel, and provide shade for next to the vehicle as well as a pretty decent amount of power. It'll be even more interesting once there are actually solid BEVs to use as a basis for a RV.
Those options have been available for ICE RV's, and travel trailers. The solar panels maintain the 12 VDC lead-acid battery charged for a certain number of hours. While the RV's alternator can maintain the motor's and the deep-cycle battery charged when the motor is running, on the travel trailer the deep-cycle battery (s) that are already charged when one leaves home, can maintain the state of charge using the solar panels.
Sono Motors, one of the companies pursuing heavy integration of solar panels into road vehicles, just announced they're going into production of series validation vehicles for testing and certification: https://electrek.co/2022/03/14/sono-...23-production/
I always found this one to be pretty quirky and having solar cells on the side panels seems bizarre to me, but it's at least an interesting early example. This does put them pretty close to actual production, so maybe we'll actually see how effective this is even early on in this decade as it's slated for release (in Europe) next year. Supposedly if this goes well, then they'll turn to the US though the US hasn't been a very good market for small hatchbacks for a while.
They have some pretty crazy targets with solar with a goal of an *average* of about 6 miles added a day and 20 miles at best a day for the sunniest period in not-so-sunny Germany. There's a lot of the US population living in areas that are on average quite a bit sunnier than Germany which on annual average gets about as much solar insolation as panhandle Alaska and the directly oceanic coastal parts of the Pacific Northwest with pretty much all the rest of the contiguous 48 plus Hawaii being sunnier and oftentimes a lot sunnier.
It also has a start that sounds almost two quaint to be true with two teenage friends deciding that they wanted to make a solar car for the masses and then going off to college getting their engineering degrees in separate schools while working on this project and meeting more and more people and turning this idea into a company and a product.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 03-14-2022 at 01:46 PM..
The problem is not the solar panels output. The problem is that modern society needs a 3000lb car going 70mph.
I have $150 in solar panel charging my electric bicycle. Rarely need to plug into the wall. I get about 20 miles a day of sun ebiking with no pedal input (but I do pedal when I feel like it).
So I have a $1200 investment in my electric bike and solar panel and it pushes me around 100-140 miles a week on solar power.
It also doesn't get stuck in traffic. And it goes 25+mph.
What is your charging set-up?? I have several electric bikes and a off-grid house, but charging the ebikes requires using a inverter and 120 volts.
Do you have a DC charger set up??
I cannot believe that ebike makers do NOT offer a solar panel charging option!!! I spend lots of time where the nearest outlet is 50 miles away.
I did adapt my electric trolling motor to charging via solar. That works real well.
Sono Motors strikes a deal with a manufacturing partner based in Finland. The odd bit here is that it's the same manufacturing partner that's struck a deal with Lightyear another European solar electric vehicle start-up (though that's at a massively higher price point).
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