This article is missing some stuff I’d really like to know. How long did this 1,000 km trip take? How often did they have to stop? What was the average range per day? All of the specs that would be great to know are missing here.
Pretty sure it didn’t take long - it has a top speed of 145km/h or 90mph.
Although some of the roads they took were pretty rough and might not be much faster than walking speed at times even in a gas powered car.
It took a month. The guardian article on this made the rounds a month or two ago. You just can’t get enough via solar to run continuously. It has a big battery for sure. Charging rate is just super low.
Edit: please excuse me. 1.5 weeks, not a month.
Yeah, this really overlooks a lot of stuff.
it seems that the solar car’s rear can be expanded for more space inside
The sun is in front of the car, with the rounded body the largest solar panel wouldn’t be getting a lot of direct sunlight. Solar panels efficiency is directly linked to the angle of it and the sun. But the writer assumes it’s for “space” and not for better solar generation. This level of “journalism” leaves a lot to be desired and feels like a lot of the more important details were overlooked.
EarthStar Voyager?
Does it elevate somehow? It doesn’t look like it has the ground clearance for actual off roading.
“Off road” but the car only stayed on undeveloped roads rather than actually going off the fucking road.
Europe’s definition of “off road” generally doesn’t include driving over boulders. That’s a uniquely American obsession.
Yes the massive continent has enormous biome diversity, unlike the boringly homogenous and safer soft limp-wrist European country you likely live in.
Would you excuse me, I need to dodge gunfire to shop for groceries. Good day to you.
undeveloped roads rather than actually going off the fucking road.
I’ve driven on some “undeveloped” roads that were worse than actual off-roading.
It was developed and abandoned, but The Rubicon comes to mind.
Did they have to make it looks so ugly?
To some extent yes, they had to. The roof is as excessively wide and flat to give it as much solar panel surface area as possible.
It’s just a proof of concept, the same techniques could apply to a nice looking car without too much range compromise. But they wanted to do something extreme.
Rough Google Maps estimate is at 2070mi.
While the vehicle looks slimmed down it’s nice to know that the solar roof design, such as on the Prius, isn’t a farfetched strategy for quelling range anxiety.
It’s not that it’s far-fetched. It’s just impractical. Solar panels don’t really generate that much power per square foot. Charging a car with just the roof can take days.
One model of solar roofed electric car on the market recharges ~20 miles per day with the roof.
Charging stations are a way better idea for road trips in electric cars, as is plugging the car in overnight. This is great for a remote hermit, but more interesting for the hack value than a practical option.
One model of solar roofed electric car on the market recharges ~20 miles per day with the roof.
I wish they’d share the specs, but some back of the envelope math suggests you could get about the equivalent of a Level 1 charger from panels on the roof of a normal sized car. That lines up pretty well with your ~20 miles per day number with a typical EV.
This experiment is able to get about 500 miles of range from a single day of sunlight.
Obviously they made some serious usability (and aesthetic) compromises to get that - but most likely the biggest difference is just the weight of the batteries. This car has small batteries which means it doesn’t need massively power motors to accelerate up to speed.
For what it’s worth, my electric bicycle gets about 50 miles from a tiny battery. The solar panels on this car could theoretically charge my bike battery in ten minutes. Electric cars really are inefficient - you’re paying a massive price to be able to comfortably transport a family around, though obviously that’s worth it if you can afford to.
I’m not sure that it does. All the articles I can find word it as something like “has a range of 710 kilometers (441 miles) on a sunny day.”, without actually explaining it. I’m assuming that’s going from 100% charge to 0% charge, plus all the range gained by charging during the day.
They don’t actually say anywhere I can find how quickly it charges.
Also, looking up some other articles about it, apparently there’s a bunch of extra fold-out solar panels in the trunk
If you wanted maximum range, you’d start before dawn, drive most of your battery away, park somewhere all day to use that solar awning for all its worth, then continue driving at dusk.
It’s also a way for people who regularly travel less than 20 miles (if this number is correct).
Most device consume more power than you can realiable get from solar on the device. You can’t power a cellphone from a back-mounted solar cell nor run a car from a solar roof alone.
But don’t make the mistake to assume that everyone has (cheap) power at home or that everyone has a (suburban) home. Photovoltaic is cheap and reliable. And you need space, so it makes sense to put solar everywhere.
It protects the car, it’s a way for the greater battery drain an electric car probably has to be offset. It’s like carrying around an extra tank of fuel. It could genuinely save lives whilst electric cars develop. Soo many reasons yes vs weight gain.
Edit: even weight gain is going to be negligible if the panel is implemented like a sunroof and see through. That would be lighter than metal and only the solar charge controller is added weight. Considering there are controllers for charging anyway this maybe less than I imagine.
Light weight panels tend to produce less power. The best ones are opaque and have a thick glass layer on both sides of the circuitry - so they’re not super light. Also the glass would need to be strong enough to handle rocks/etc as well as provide structural support in a crash (even if it’s just with the initial impact and then shatters similar to a car windscreen).
They could theoretically be light however in reality heavy panels might be a better choice.
But yeah I agree you’re on the money with protecting the car. This could make a big difference to the usable life of the battery by keeping it closer to the optimum charge level especially with a normal daily suburban to city commute.
Since the car stands still most of the day, some kind of system that folds out into multiple solar panels may be interesting, offering shade as well
That may be awful for urban scenarios such as parking lots
It could unfold front to back, covering the hood and the trunk, taking up no more space than the car itself.
Or like that umbrella solar system. Or even adaptable to available space. Obviously works best when camping
Considering it’s a Dutch university, I’m wondering how far it’d go in the Ducth weather.
Jokes aside, this is an interesting concept. Wonder what may come of this later on.
It’s giving off some serious Pontiac Aztec vibes
They can finally do that Dark Angel sequel series.
It’s like if the Aztec and the Cybertruck had an ugly baby.
I love to hate on the Pontiac Aztec as much as the next guy, but it wouldn’t be caught dead with a cyber truck.
The tech sounds cool, but that design style is absolutely tragic.
We’ll, the fastback and the fairings on the rear wheels makes sense for aerodynamics, but I have no idea what’s going on at the front.
It looks like the automotive design equivalent of downs syndrome
Prettier than the cybertruck to be honest.
This bit of news made the rounds late October. It’s cool but they go to lengths to, IMO, misrepresent the achievement. It took them 1.5 weeks to do this. It has a great big battery but they give the impression that you can drive more or less continuously from solar alone. No mention in any of the many articles you can read on this (they must all be sourced from the same press release or similar) about charging rates to charge the whole battery. The best you can see is on some of the articles they say cloud cover could impact range by 50km. At what sort of speeds that is based on is up to anyone’s guess.
It’s neat to see solar technology go this far. Was there a support team?
A great positive is that it is a very light weight vehicle. The approach angle looks good. It’s cool how it pops open to supposedly live in but I wonder what the interior is actually like. I can’t imagine it is carrying much living supplies, water, etc as it’s a very light vehicle.
Some negatives include terrible ground clearance and a horrendous departure angle. I can’t imagine the break over angle is very good considering the low ground clearance. It also has small tire sidewalls so they couldn’t have aired down much.
All in all, not a serious off road vehicle. I would argue it’s as much of an off road vehicle as a Prius is with a roof top tent on it. It’s just meant to cruise fire roads.
