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Aptera's First Solar Road Trip. 300 Miles, One Charge

(aptera.us)
49 points geox | 2 comments | 31 Mar 25 11:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.003s | source
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pinkmuffinere ◴[03 Apr 25 05:02 UTC] No.43564937[source]▶
> Even on an overcast day, the team saw over 545 watts of solar input

Let’s (generously) assume that was the minimum they saw, and let’s (generously) say they charged for 14 hours. That’s 7.63 kWh gained over the day, in almost ideal conditions. Flagstaff’s high altitude means stronger sunlight, and they can do regenerative braking as they come down the mountain. In my Nissan leaf, 6 kWh would get me about 20 miles. If they are much more efficient, they maybe got 50 miles from the charging on that day, and the other 250 from the charge they started with.

I’d love to be wrong about any of the above! Solar panels on cars would be so cool! It just doesn’t seem useful. Please correct me if I’m mistaken.

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1. gpm ◴[03 Apr 25 05:16 UTC] No.43565024[source]▶
For roadtrips, you're absolutely right.

The average car travels less than 50 miles on the average day though (more like 30 I believe). This means you don't have to charge except on roadtrips (provided you can park outside in the sun, and don't drive more than average. The battery can provide some smoothing out of day-to-day variability though).

Whether not having to plug in at home is particularly useful... hard to know if it's something consumers want.

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2. NewJazz ◴[03 Apr 25 16:14 UTC] No.43571866[source]▶
If you are parked outside in the sun, you'll need to spend some amount of energy keeping the battery at a healthy operating temperature.