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.
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.
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…
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.