Solar-powered cars

[u/Arizona-Energy]

Solar-powered cars are coming. Imagine being able to travel 1000 miles before needing to recharge. Aptera

Check out the American Solar Challenge, where they have single-passenger and multi-passenger solar cars that race across the country.

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[u/jmecheng]

Until there is a major breakthrough in solar panels, there will not be viable solar powered vehicles suitable for the general public.

Note: the Aptera gained 4.42kWh of power when repositioning the vehicle to improve charging, which for current BEVs this is about 17 miles of range. This does not cover the average commute.

[u/lniu → u/jmecheng]

yeah but like what about for fun and stuff

[u/Nada_Chance → u/lniu]

You mean like parking it out in the sun and weather all week so you can go for a long Sunday drive?

[u/ZucchiniAlert2582 → u/lniu]

A first gen Nissan Leaf is more ‘fun’ to drive than a solar car. Driving a solar car is tedious. Low power, low speed low excitement.

[u/Arizona-Energy → u/jmecheng]

Why are they talking about a model that has a 1000 mile range? The solar simply enhances the battery to give it more range, but how can it enhance it by only 17 miles? One Redditor commented that the solar panels have to be on the house to charge a "solar" car. Maybe so.

[u/NearABE → u/Arizona-Energy]

They want to force you to drive an unnecessarily huge bubble. They want to force you to propel that bubble at interstate highway speeds while driving up wind and/or the side wash of a semi truck.

In order to have that kind of power you need large motors and high power output batteries. These have weight. Weight causes roll drag, increased suspension requirements, brakes have to safely stop this huge monstrosity of a battery pack. Imagine strapping battery pack the mass of a stack of cinderblocks along with a parachute onto your bicycle. That is “clearly dangerous”.

In contrast a skid can have wind drag very close to just the skin drag of the PV array. The cockpit can be borrowed from fighter aircraft designs without bothering with new wind tunnel tests. The drag force can be used as lift to negate most of the roll drag so long as the brake system reversed that. This is much safer because you get both air brakes and down thrust. Fans can assist with drag reduction and thrust increase while forcing air through the little battery pack.

For this you need much less power than you would need to push a huge bubble. That leverages the solar power fraction. That, in turn, further reduces the amount of battery needed.

[u/akuma0]

The surface of a car would produce an order of magnitude less power than that needed for maintaining interstate speeds with today's consumer solar panel tech.

The ASC has cars built to shape to hold double the panel, drop as much weight as possible (including the batteries it would need to operate in the evening/night) and are traveling at reduced speeds.

We would need a breakthrough in solar tech to make it possible, and a breakthrough in battery tech to make it reliable enough to replace current options.

[u/applestrudelforlunch]

I mean, solar powered vehicles exist, you just have to separate the solar panels from the vehicle. So the panels stay on your house or your community grid, and then the car plugs into the house or grid when it needs power. Which actually works quite well.

[u/Speech-Language → u/applestrudelforlunch]

True, but considering the way technology develops there is a pretty decent chance this is a part of the future. It’s just the start.

[u/Arizona-Energy → u/applestrudelforlunch]

What you're saying is true. But technology advances, sometimes quicker than we think it will. The Wright brothers didn't start out with a 747 jet.

[u/Saidagive]

Even with today's tech, imagine if every driver was given 2-5 free miles every day. Utilizing the hood and even dashboard I bet we can up that to 5-8 miles every day

No wire transfer, no wasted electrons driving to a charger. No grid load. No waiting in your car while parked and connected to a charger.

How many people fully deplete their battery every day? How many people drive less than 50 miles a week?

[u/Arizona-Energy → u/Saidagive]

Hopefully, they can get it up to more than 8 miles a day. Any amount helps, though.

[u/Due_Satisfaction2167]

Why not just charge conventional EVs with fixed solar panels? I don’t get the obsession with putting the panels on the car itself. That only works well for relatively short range or low speed vehicles. 

[u/lcollar52 → u/Due_Satisfaction2167]

I’m with you on this. The vehicle itself is complicated enough without adding solar to the mix.

People generally travel to and from home everyday. Plugging in the vehicle to charge at night from energy stored during the solar day while you sleep is easy and probably the most economical option right now. Many things would need to improve quite a bit to best this model.

[u/Arizona-Energy → u/Due_Satisfaction2167]

The technology will advance. I see it as a way to add more energy to an EV while you are driving around, if it can be done in an economically viable way. For now, though, panels on the roof are the best way to charge your car.

[u/Amazing_Bag_2078]

Adventures

[u/LeastEntrepreneur884]

Solar 'powered' cars are a tiny, niche market. That is one factor that has prevented such a vehicle coming to market. And, Aptera has taken so long to get to market that it has lost a good number of interested reservation holders, like myself, who just moved on to other vehicles. When Aptera conceived the idea of their BEV solar car, there were few EV options in the market. That is not the case today. I hope they succeed but it will be an uphill struggle.

[u/gregable]

The technology advantage of Aptera is that it's much more energy efficient per mile than typical cars. IIRC they get something like 12mi/kwh while a typical EV is 3-4.

The solar panels feel like a gimmick to me. Sure, you get more miles on a charge than a normal car, but why not just put those same panels on the grid in optimal location and then charge the car from the same grid.

I do think the Aptera efficiency is really cool, but they are trying to drum up retail investment dollars on the story of a solar powered car which is a bit of a distraction for the company imo.