Basically its a roof rack solar panel with a battery inside (includes AC outlet), extra fold out panels that cover the length of the car, and a charge cable for the car. They’re about $5000 USD and are shipping the first ones out in Q3 this year.
As someone who lives in an appt and commutes, this would make an electric vehicle much more viable as there is no charging stations in my building or at my work. I saw this and immediately began researching what vehicle models would be coming to Canada in 2028.
I haven’t looked into this specifically, but it’s extremely hard to make the numbers work for a solar-powered car with panels the size of the car. The panels just aren’t big enough for them to collect enough energy from the sun to make it worthwhile.
It also looks like in this case, you would need to manually put the panels in place after every trip, and remove them before each one. And that’s assuming no concerns about theft or weather damage.
At best, it’s going to be very inconvenient. At worst, it won’t help at all and you’ll be living on fast chargers.
Also on many cars it would not even provide enough amps to even engage charging at all, many want at least 10 amps to charge over ac
That is why there is a built in battery Charge the battery for however long it takes then ‘fast’ drain it to charge the car.
Unless the parking lot at work is indoors/covered/underground/multi-level, this would be great for many commuters. Charge on a home outlet at night, charge on solar at work. Always a full charge.
I had similar thoughts when I saw this but he addresses them in the video.
For me, my car sits all day once I’m done commuting. So while it might not be faster, or viable for everyone, I do think there’s a type of driver that this suits well.
“up to” is doing A LOT of heavy lifting.
There is a mountain of difference in solar power that can be collected on June 21 vs December 21. We all know that, there are many more hours in the day. but what many people don’t know is that even limited to the same productive hours, let’s say 9a-4p, summer light has a lot more power.
Because it’s their own marketing, you can count on “Up to 20 miles per day” meaning 20 miles (in an extremely efficient EV), in the ideal circumstances, on the best day of the year. The rest of the year will be worse, probably much worse.
But don’t take my word for it, and certainly don’t take theirs. Wait for independent reviews, and check them. See what people can actually expect from such a system. As much as I would love for this to be a real solution for most people, it’s very unlikely.
That would depend significantly on your climate, then. Just like normal solar, it’ll be a lot more productive if you live closer to the equator.
Oh Definitely. I don’t even have an electric car yet. The reason this appeals to me is because without something like this an electric car is simply not viable for my situation.
Then an EV isn’t viable. You could consider doing something similar with an e-bike.
Ya. My commute puts me Just outside the range that the #'s this guy is alleging make it viable. There actually is 1 charger at work, but I’d only get an hour at best before I’d have to give it up to boss man.
I wish. Problem is that the 80kph shorter route I normally drive is a rat trail and the safer routes are all 4x longer. Would mean like 14-15 hour days and that’s just not sustainable for me.
Any chance of using level 1 charging? That would just require a standard wall outlet. Over 8 hours, it would probably give you about 25 miles of range, depending on the details.
Also, I assume that charger is a level 2. You could probably get 20 miles of range in an hour.
If you’re within spitting distance, you could make up the difference with public charging. Many grocery stores now have DC fast charging, so you could top off on a regular weekly trip.
TBH, I think you’re a much better candidate for a hybrid, or possibly a plug-in hybrid.
So I’ll admit I am very ignorant on charging levels etc. I’ve don’t little research.
I just commented earlier but I definitely have access to something better than level 1.
I reeeeally want to upgrade to electric (driving econo gas on loan) but our options are kinda shit in Canada, and I feel like unless I’m going for something with a lot of utility like a Ford econovan or a 4x4 truck, I’m better off waiting for the better commuter cars hitting our market over the next couple years. (cuz kias burn out at 100kkms)
They are asking if you have a normal wall outlet that you can reach where you park. Depending on your commute that is often actually enough, luckily the math is pretty easy to figure out.
I doubt your boss would be charging the entire day every day. You could talk to him about it and see.
You’re probably right. But even depending on the car 1h might be decent cuz it’s not just a household plugin, they upgraded the connection for him (our monthly power bill is more than my annual salary).
I assume it’s an A/C charger, you’ll get anywhere from 8 - 20% in an hour depending on its power and your car model. But there’s an off chance it’s a fast DC charger, in which case an hour is probably sufficient for a full charge.
You realize YouTube is just infomercials, right?
My wife is putting sun shades on the window everytime she parks so this is effort she would do anyway. Except she is to short to make this work with the minivan. Most of her trips she isn’t going fast enough to see a range hit from aerodynamics, and the van doesn’t have much range so she often is on has the last two miles home. So this could work for her if only it wasn’t so high to the van roof.
Wouldn’t it depend how much you drive though? I am kinda curious what sort of distance/day it could get. Also lighter cars might help.
Solar tuktuk?
I’d guesstimate around 10 miles a day at best. I’ve seen people try this with many times this amount of solar panels and the numbers they get are really unimpressive.
10 miles is generous. Assuming no cloud, near the equator, and no possibility of shade or bird shit.
Youtube repeatedly sells this solar car fantasy and people just suck it up. Aptera has been grifting this for 16 years and a car has yet to appear…just another $50M brah, I promise.
That seems low to me.
You’re basically saying that you’d get an average of 250-300W over a day. I assuming 3.5 - 4 miles per kWh.
Yeah to fully charge for longer drives you kinda need the roof of your house. I know a few people who drive EVs fully charge on solar like that.
I don’t have a car so no need myself and ebike restrictions are so extreme in the UK that I don’t see the point for myself. 250w and 15.5mph limit, I can cycle pretty much that fast anyway. 13mph is the AVERAGE speed I go to work and that includes stopping for cars and lights. So potentially a road legal ebike would just be a dead weight motor to pedal against most of the time.
A spare wheel with a motor on it that I can swap between to convert it into an ebike for long distance rides could be cool. But ebike throttles are also not road legal. Must be pedal assistance only, and that seems like it might be quite a lot to convert it each time I switch. Maybe I need to talk my partner into getting an ebike that we could both use…