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People can do both. It really just comes down to: are the solar panels worth the added manufacturing cost and weight? If it cost ten dollars and added one pou

by elihu 6y ago

People can do both. It really just comes down to: are the solar panels worth the added manufacturing cost and weight? If it cost ten dollars and added one pound of weight almost everyone would want it. If it cost ten thousand dollars and added a hundred pounds of weight then few people would want it. The unknowns at this point are: what are people willing to pay and how much additional weight will they tolerate? And, how light and cheap can these panels be made with the technology available now? And whatever these numbers are now, they may change as public opinion, the price of energy, and technology change. It may be too early for this to be a viable product, or maybe not. It's good to see someone is trying it at least. Also: a solar carport might be technically easier to make, but it will require building permits and probably hiring an electrician and manual labor assembling the structure and so on. And some people don't own the land they park their car on, and many people drive to work and park their car in a lot that either doesn't have solar roofs over the cars or the ones that do use that power to cut down on the company's power bills.

SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
> are the solar panels worth the added manufacturing cost and weight? "worth" here implies the third factor that you didn't explicitly mention: how much power you get off them. And "69 miles per week of charging" is pretty small, hardly worth it unless it's extremely cheap in vehicle cost and weight. You're not wrong with the qualifiers "people using their cars once or twice a week to drive 10km to do groceries" and "some people don't own the land they park their car on" but each qualifier of the prospective customer greatly decreases the potential market size. Combined with a qualifier that they must be without good access to shared transport (so not in a big city, but not on their own land); then you might be looking at corner cases, not a viable market.
- nicoburns 6y ago
  > hardly worth it unless it's extremely cheap in vehicle cost and weight. While the technology isn't there yet, it seems likely that this will eventually be the case.

by elihu 6y ago

SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago

> are the solar panels worth the added manufacturing cost and weight? "worth" here implies the third factor that you didn't explicitly mention: how much power you get off them. And "69 miles per week of charging" is pretty small, hardly worth it unless it's extremely cheap in vehicle cost and weight. You're not wrong with the qualifiers "people using their cars once or twice a week to drive 10km to do groceries" and "some people don't own the land they park their car on" but each qualifier of the prospective customer greatly decreases the potential market size. Combined with a qualifier that they must be without good access to shared transport (so not in a big city, but not on their own land); then you might be looking at corner cases, not a viable market.

nicoburns 6y ago
> hardly worth it unless it's extremely cheap in vehicle cost and weight. While the technology isn't there yet, it seems likely that this will eventually be the case.