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Electric Vehicles

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The bit I have never understood is there is no decent scenery.

Anne Beadell Highway

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Beadell_Highway

Fuel and supplies
The track is suitable for only well-provisioned and experienced four-wheel drivers. There are no settlements between Coober Pedy and Laverton. A roadhouse named Ilkurlka in Western Australia, opened in 2003, 167 km (104 mi) west of the Western Australia - South Australian state border at the intersection of the Madura Loongana Track (Aboriginal Business Road) and the Anne Beadell Highway. The roadhouse caters mainly for local Aboriginal communities and may be the most isolated roadhouse in Australia. There are still no provisions for the 780 km (480 mi) between Ilkurlka and Coober Pedy.
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The track passes through remote arid deserts and scrub territory of South Australia and Western Australia, which often have summer temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Sand dunes predominate for most of the track.
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That raises a good point, actually. What is the status of solar electric vehicles right now? I know there used to be a solar challenge race, but I don't know if that's still going. If solar electric vehicles are a thing, then charging stations wouldn't be so much of a challenge. I suspect we're still a fair way off.
 
arthwollipot said:
That raises a good point, actually. What is the status of solar electric vehicles right now? I know there used to be a solar challenge race, but I don't know if that's still going. If solar electric vehicles are a thing, then charging stations wouldn't be so much of a challenge. I suspect we're still a fair way off.
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I think solar cells don't put out enough wattage per area to be practical for charging up a car, other than the super light exotics that appear in contests. The solar panels I see advertised are getting something in the neighborhood of 15 watts per square foot. Of course, since the sun is free, any little bit is helpful, and I could see the virtue in having a solar roof, since the saving over a period of time would be substantial, but I think you'll always need more current for most charges.
 
To put it another way, unless your car has an aircraft carrier surface covered with solar panels strapped to the roof, it's a no go.
 
Well, an aircraft carrier is overdoing it. These things do weigh up to a few hundred pounds and achieve speeds in the 40s to 60s MPH depending on conditions and whether they're allowed to use a battery pack. Scale the weight up for a body that could really do a car's job, scale the speed up a bit more, and scale the drag up for a vehicle that can carry somebody sitting up instead of lying down, and you get a panel-surface-area multiplier in the low double-digit range, not upper hundreds to low thousands like the aircraft carrier comparison. A handful of big-rig trailers of surface area would do it. Of course, you still can't fit that on a car anyway...
 
Delvo said:
Well, an aircraft carrier is overdoing it. These things do weigh up to a few hundred pounds and achieve speeds in the 40s to 60s MPH depending on conditions and whether they're allowed to use a battery pack. Scale the weight up for a body that could really do a car's job, scale the speed up a bit more, and scale the drag up for a vehicle that can carry somebody sitting up instead of lying down, and you get a panel-surface-area multiplier in the low double-digit range, not upper hundreds to low thousands like the aircraft carrier comparison. A handful of big-rig trailers of surface area would do it. Of course, you still can't fit that on a car anyway...
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But you certainly could fit it on top of a couple of big-rig trailers containing cargo. Electric motors can generate quite a lot of torque...
 
arthwollipot said:
But you certainly could fit it on top of a couple of big-rig trailers containing cargo. Electric motors can generate quite a lot of torque...
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Aussie truck trains could probably work, but the weight might screw things a bit.

 
Filippo Lippi said:
It does have a flat roof
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I read about Lightyear One a while back. They claim the solar cells add "30 to 40 miles of range in summer." So, most of the year most people would have to plug it in each night to charge anyway . It will fill a niche market for people who only drive occasionally or want it just because it is cool, but it doesn't really demonstrate the practically of solar cells on an EV.

If development of solar cells get to the point where they add almost no weight and cost very little then it might make sense to add them.
 
jadebox said:
I read about Lightyear One a while back. They claim the solar cells add "30 to 40 miles of range in summer." So, most of the year most people would have to plug it in each night to charge anyway . It will fill a niche market for people who only drive occasionally or want it just because it is cool, but it doesn't really demonstrate the practically of solar cells on an EV.

If development of solar cells get to the point where they add almost no weight and cost very little then it might make sense to add them.
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As long as the vehicle is parked outside in full sunshine, that might be enough for the average UK motorist for those summer months.

In 2015, motorists drove an average of 7,900 miles each, according to the Government’s National Travel Survey.
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https://www.thinkmoney.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-average-miles-driven-per-year-in-the-uk/

The US is much, much higher with average mileage nearly double that in the UK.

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm
 
The Don said:
As long as the vehicle is parked outside in full sunshine, that might be enough for the average UK motorist for those summer months.
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I pay about $100 total for electricity to drive about that far during the summer. The car costs tens of thousands more than cars without the solar cells. From an economical perspective, that doesn't make sense.
 
jadebox said:
I pay about $100 total for electricity to drive about that far during the summer. The car costs tens of thousands more than cars without the solar cells. From an economical perspective, that doesn't make sense.
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That's as maybe, I was simply addressing whether or not "would have to plug it in each night to charge".
 
arthwollipot said:
That raises a good point, actually. What is the status of solar electric vehicles right now? I know there used to be a solar challenge race, but I don't know if that's still going. If solar electric vehicles are a thing, then charging stations wouldn't be so much of a challenge. I suspect we're still a fair way off.
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A better solution for truly remote areas may be a self contained solar charging station. A small field of solar panels, a pretty big set of batteries, a control system and a communications link to convey charge state and other information to potential users and for maintenance.

Could maybe make something really portable, like a shipping container housing the batteries and control equipment and folded up deployable solar panels, for emergency use in remote sunny locations.

Three or four of those on the way to Coober Pedy may make it doable in an electric car. I know I'll probably hate the heat and sand in less than a few hours, but I have a strong desire to visit the mines and underground homes of Coober Pedy one day. And I don't even really like opals.
 
jadebox said:
Oh, I said "most of the year" (i.e. all the non-Summer months) you would need to plug it in.
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You also said each night. With a 300+ mile range a full charge would last the average UK motorist 2 weeks.

Over the summer it wouldn't require external charging at all, in the spring and autumn it would only require the occasional top up and even in the depths of winter maybe 4 or 5 nights a month.
 
Dr. Keith said:
A better solution for truly remote areas may be a self contained solar charging station. A small field of solar panels, a pretty big set of batteries, a control system and a communications link to convey charge state and other information to potential users and for maintenance.

Could maybe make something really portable, like a shipping container housing the batteries and control equipment and folded up deployable solar panels, for emergency use in remote sunny locations.

Three or four of those on the way to Coober Pedy may make it doable in an electric car. I know I'll probably hate the heat and sand in less than a few hours, but I have a strong desire to visit the mines and underground homes of Coober Pedy one day. And I don't even really like opals.
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Local generation is going to be the solution to many problems
 
bruto said:
I think solar cells don't put out enough wattage per area to be practical for charging up a car, other than the super light exotics that appear in contests. The solar panels I see advertised are getting something in the neighborhood of 15 watts per square foot. Of course, since the sun is free, any little bit is helpful, and I could see the virtue in having a solar roof, since the saving over a period of time would be substantial, but I think you'll always need more current for most charges.
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I have a van with more than 700 watts of solar on the roof. I can see replacing those 2 panels in the next 10 years doubling that capacity. But that is peak power in ideal situations. Not to hot and direct sunlight. Those would be tandem silicon perovskite panels. That would be 38 percent efficient as opposed to the 18 percent of my present panels.
 
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