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On the other hand, any electric car can be charged from solar panels on your roof. Then there's Aptera, which can charge itself from the sun if you're in a rea

On the other hand, any electric car can be charged from solar panels on your roof. Then there's Aptera, which can charge itself from the sun if you're in a reasonably sunny area, and which has a strong commitment to right-to-repair: https://aptera.us/right-to-repair-commitment-feat-rich-rebuilds/ https://aptera.us/right-to-repair-commitment-feat-rich-rebui... They also make their own battery packs, despite not exactly being a large operation. https://aptera.us/battery-update/ https://aptera.us/battery-update/

telchar 4y ago
Color me surprised to see that name again! I thought Aptera was dead and gone. I hope they fare better this time. The solar car route could be an interesting niche.
- DennisP 4y ago
  Yep. Car looks pretty much the same as the old version. Sandy Munro, the engineer famous for taking Teslas apart, has been advising them.
b112 4y ago
Solar panels on my car roof might be good to charge my laptop. Or, keep a car from losing charge while idle. I think you'd have to leave the car in the sun for days, just to drive to the 5 minutes away store and back.
- gambiting 4y ago
  It just doesn't make any sense if you know anything about physics. Sun provides about 1kW of power per square meter.....at noon, at the equator, with no clouds. Automotive solar panels like they use are about 20% efficient. Your average car roof is....let's be super forgiving and say 2sqm. So in the middle of the day, at the equator, you are generating about 400W of power. The average EV battery is 50kWh. So you'd need 125 hours in full sun to recharge it fully. During a regular sunny day you'd get maybe.....2-3kWh back into your battery? So yeah, about enough to cover ~10 miles in a regular EV. Sure it's better than nothing, but remember that this is in ideal conditions. In less than ideal conditions you are talking yeah, enough energy to cover a mile or two per day of charging. It's just silly.
  - prmoustache 4y ago
    You seem to forget that bar exceptions (people working on the road all day), most passenger cars are staying parked 99% of the time and use for small errands. The aptera is also built to provide up to 1000miles in its highest spec out of one complete charge.
    - gambiting 4y ago
      Right and how long does it take to charge that 1000 mile range in an average British city? A full year? And I'm not forgetting it - I'm just saying that the overall gain doesn't seem to be worth it. The cost of solar panels integrated into the car would pay for a lot of electricity from the grid instead.
      - DennisP 4y ago
        Right, if you need to fully charge then plug it in. You'll do that after a road trip. But if you live somewhere sunny and typically drive 20 miles a day, you can keep it topped up by just parking in the sun. Some will find this worthwhile, others won't. Apartment dwellers without convenient chargers might find it handy. The comment I replied to advocated doing your own energy production, and if that's what you care about, grid power doesn't really compete.
      - prmoustache 4y ago
        The aptera is still plugable and you would still benefit from the efficiency even in sorry sad UK...And I have seen nowhere anyone saying it was for everyone. It only have 2 seats and limited luggage capacity for a start, it won't replace a family van. I live in Andalusia where decent sunlight is all year and I would love a similar thing with 4 seats. With only 2 I don't really see the advantage over using my motorbike which is much easier to park.
        DennisP 4y ago
        Luggage capacity isn't bad if you don't need much vertical space. It has that big flat area in the back.
- DennisP 4y ago
  Well that depends on the car. Solar race cars cross the country on sunlight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car_racing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car_racing Aptera is less extreme than that, but still a lot more efficient than a normal car, mainly due to aerodynamics, plus light weight and three wheels. Take a glance at aptera.us and you'll see how far they took the aerodynamics. They claim up to 40 miles of range collected per day, if you're someplace like southern California, and max out their panel options. The car is pretty flat and wide, which also helps. If you don't have much sun available, you can plug into a regular wall outlet and add range reasonably quickly.

telchar 4y ago

Color me surprised to see that name again! I thought Aptera was dead and gone. I hope they fare better this time. The solar car route could be an interesting niche.

DennisP 4y ago
Yep. Car looks pretty much the same as the old version. Sandy Munro, the engineer famous for taking Teslas apart, has been advising them.

b112 4y ago

Solar panels on my car roof might be good to charge my laptop. Or, keep a car from losing charge while idle. I think you'd have to leave the car in the sun for days, just to drive to the 5 minutes away store and back.

gambiting 4y ago
It just doesn't make any sense if you know anything about physics. Sun provides about 1kW of power per square meter.....at noon, at the equator, with no clouds. Automotive solar panels like they use are about 20% efficient. Your average car roof is....let's be super forgiving and say 2sqm. So in the middle of the day, at the equator, you are generating about 400W of power. The average EV battery is 50kWh. So you'd need 125 hours in full sun to recharge it fully. During a regular sunny day you'd get maybe.....2-3kWh back into your battery? So yeah, about enough to cover ~10 miles in a regular EV. Sure it's better than nothing, but remember that this is in ideal conditions. In less than ideal conditions you are talking yeah, enough energy to cover a mile or two per day of charging. It's just silly.
- prmoustache 4y ago
  You seem to forget that bar exceptions (people working on the road all day), most passenger cars are staying parked 99% of the time and use for small errands. The aptera is also built to provide up to 1000miles in its highest spec out of one complete charge.
  - gambiting 4y ago
    Right and how long does it take to charge that 1000 mile range in an average British city? A full year? And I'm not forgetting it - I'm just saying that the overall gain doesn't seem to be worth it. The cost of solar panels integrated into the car would pay for a lot of electricity from the grid instead.
    - DennisP 4y ago
      Right, if you need to fully charge then plug it in. You'll do that after a road trip. But if you live somewhere sunny and typically drive 20 miles a day, you can keep it topped up by just parking in the sun. Some will find this worthwhile, others won't. Apartment dwellers without convenient chargers might find it handy. The comment I replied to advocated doing your own energy production, and if that's what you care about, grid power doesn't really compete.
    - prmoustache 4y ago
      The aptera is still plugable and you would still benefit from the efficiency even in sorry sad UK...And I have seen nowhere anyone saying it was for everyone. It only have 2 seats and limited luggage capacity for a start, it won't replace a family van. I live in Andalusia where decent sunlight is all year and I would love a similar thing with 4 seats. With only 2 I don't really see the advantage over using my motorbike which is much easier to park.
      - DennisP 4y ago
        Luggage capacity isn't bad if you don't need much vertical space. It has that big flat area in the back.
DennisP 4y ago
Well that depends on the car. Solar race cars cross the country on sunlight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car_racing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car_racing Aptera is less extreme than that, but still a lot more efficient than a normal car, mainly due to aerodynamics, plus light weight and three wheels. Take a glance at aptera.us and you'll see how far they took the aerodynamics. They claim up to 40 miles of range collected per day, if you're someplace like southern California, and max out their panel options. The car is pretty flat and wide, which also helps. If you don't have much sun available, you can plug into a regular wall outlet and add range reasonably quickly.