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

(aptera.us)
49 points geox | 2 comments | 3/31/2025, 11:05:00 AM | HN request time: 0.529s | source
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pinkmuffinere ◴[4/3/2025, 5:02:00 AM] 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. KeplerBoy ◴[4/3/2025, 5:53:00 AM] No.43565271[source]▶

Have you looked at the thing? I wouldn't be surprised if it's an order of magnitude more efficient than most electric cars out there.

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2. Earw0rm ◴[4/3/2025, 6:17:00 AM] No.43565454[source]▶

The energy dynamics will be closer to a heavy ebike or light motorcycle.

500-600 watts is plenty for moving along at 30-40mph, and with such a light bodyshell, you don't want to be going a lot faster than that.

Standard automobiles are something of a vicious cycle energy-wise - weight, range and speed aren't a linear relationship, so on short-range trips we're paying a huge efficiency penalty for long-range capability. Golf buggies, ebikes and so on can be 1/10th the weight and 1/10th the energy consumption.