The sun shine powered motor

[moggiethouable]

I thought the attached may be of interest to petrol heads and solar heads alike.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... oncept-car

[TFM150K]

Bet 1) it will be dear 2)they won't do a van version 3)the 'works' won't fit in my moggie so there's no point in putting an ad in "Parts Wanted" for a crashed one thinking that I might have a "100 mpg van". Chance would be a fine thing!

[MarkyB]

Two good ideas, solar panels and lenses to concentrate the sun onto them.
Should work well in countries that get some more sun

[irmscher]

Very good if you live in Florida

[bmcecosse]

Better not use an underground carpark...or a garage. Seems easier (and more sensible) to me to have the solar panels on the house roof - and just plug in to recharge......

[MarkyB]

Not everyone can park close enough to their house to plug it in, terraced houses in London like mine for instance.
I'm amazed the idea of having a solar panel on an electric car has taken so long!

[bmcecosse]

Trouble is Marky to get a large enough panel on there to make any sensible contribution to the car's energy requirements.. A normal panel is good for maybe 250 w in decent light - so even with 12 hours of good light, that's only 3 kw hr into the battery. Which won't take a car very far......

[rayofleamington]

Not everyone can park close enough to their house to plug it in, terraced houses in London like mine for instance.
I'm amazed the idea of having a solar panel on an electric car has taken so long!

What amazes me is that people think it's new!
First example that comes to mind from mass production is toyota do one (IIRC on the prius). It can be used for cabin cooling if you park in the sun!

Many battery vehicles and plug in Hybrids are looking to have 7kW charging stations for reasonable charging times.
250w on the car roof is not going to make plug in charging obsolete.

As for solar panels on the house - you don't need to park nearby!?!
with an MCS approved system you feed the energy into the grid so even if you plug your car in 500 miles away in uk, you are still 'connected', and will get paid for the electricity delivered to the grid.
However, solar charging of a personal vehicle is not a ground breaking leap forward - we use our cars during the day and battery electric vehicle users are most likely to be charged at night (on the cheaper tarrifs! which actually helps the grid with potential extra grid balancing)

[MarkyB]

A full day of sunshine is equivalent to a four-hour battery charge, or 8 kWh, Ford says.

[rayofleamington]

Well the focus 'e' is 6.6kW rated onboard charger, so surely the 8kwh should be possible in about an hour and 10 minutes... not 4 hours??

(although their charge time application software could apparently report 4 hours if you listen to their users... see chat below I found on my first click on google)

http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/vi ... f=8&t=1036

[MarkyB]

The limitation is going to be what the panel gives, not the size of the charger.

[rayofleamington]

yes, however I was trying to point out that tgheir 8 hours sunshine is surely equivalent to 1hr 10 mins battery charge, not 4.