Solar Powered Cars

[PV1]

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3991087-solar-powered-cars-far-fetched-might-think

"Not as far-fetched as you might think." No kidding :roll:. I've been driving on sunshine for nearly three years now (with the total utility cost in that time amounting to less than two pre-solar electric bills :ugeek: ). Ed Begley's been doing it for over a decade, using solar to juice up his old RAV4-EV.

For a long time, half of the US EV fleet was solar-powered. Of course, that was only a handful of cars, but still was done. I'd say that there's still almost half powered by some form of renewable energy or RECs.

 

[mdbuilder]

Click bait :roll:

Looks interesting, demands your email to read beyond page 1.

 

[PV1]

Still? :roll: No more articles from Seeking Alpha, then.

Guess that's what I get for picking up stories from Nasdaq's website while watching TSLA pricing (not invested, just keeping an eye on it).

The article is like listening to someone raving about what we've known for years, and about something that isn't all that new. The first few paragraphs and the bullet points sum up the whole thing. I'd almost hazard a guess that the article is actually about 10 years old and was updated slightly to highlight production EVs given the feel of it.

If someone really wants to read it, I can quote it here.

 

[mdbuilder]

Yep, and an ad blocker does not help and there is no "X" to close the box. Should be a criminal offense :lol:

 

[JoeS]

Back on topic, hey, PV1, remember this on your Solar on Car Roof thread? For some giggles:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3435#p3435

(As an aside, philosophically, is it better to provide the image here or the link to the thread and post which contains the image?)

 

[PV1]

:lol: Yes I do. I was just talking with a friend about solar roofs the other day. I'm still convinced there is merit to 300-350 watts of low-profile flexible solar on the i-MiEV roof.

Up until a few months before I bought the i-MiEV (I think it was when I joined this forum), I was planning on building a solar car for every day driving. It was designed to have a 1,000 watt solar array feeding a 72 volt LiFePO4 battery bank. It was based on Bombardier Can-Am Spyder suspension and driven by a 30 kW electric motor. It originally was going to have a 7 kWh battery bank, but by the time I got to what I thought was a workable solution to cover just about any driving needs, it had a 30 kWh battery. By that point, I was at the same price point of a then ES i-MiEV, plus I had to build the car and do all the wrenching myself. It was at this point (after 3 years of design work) that I finally gave up and started heavily researching the i-MiEV. I based the design on this car, made by the Walnut Solar Car Team:

I guess one way or another, the dream became reality .
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c8qsdw7u2ugxkcs/IMG_20150927_132622.jpg?dl=0

For links to images in existing threads, I'd say to link to the source post/thread (saves readers from searching for the source thread). But, for external pictures, using the IMG tags are better (as long as the picture is sized correctly. I know, I'm working on it ).