The BETTER Electric Vehicle..

[westwall]

For the 1000th time. It's not about generating the electric. A home solar array can do it. The problem is the time and more importantly the inability of the vehicles to meet driver's needs. If they made one that did they wouldn't be able to keep up with demand. All the other arguments are moot.

Time? In a grid parallel system you put kW's on the webb during the day, and take them off at night. At the end of the month, if you use more than you put on, you pay. If you use less, you have a credit for the next month.

And it's the grid power that you MUST use to recharge the battery in a timely fashion. Left entirely to the PV panels it is a month. Regardless, the payback of the panels will not pay for the grid power used.

 

[Politico]

The C-Max Energi by Ford is very close to the goal. At 20 miles per charge, and 47/47 on gasoline, this hybrid would meet most people's needs for daily commutes, and be able to do long trips with no problems.

We're talking electric cars not hybrids.

Time? In a grid parallel system you put kW's on the webb during the day, and take them off at night. At the end of the month, if you use more than you put on, you pay. If you use less, you have a credit for the next month.

Once again we are talking about charging the car not the grid that charges it.

 

[flacaltenn]

Nissan Leaf, battery capacity 24 Kilowatt-Hours

Northeast USA, 4 kwH/m^2/day of sunlight.

Current solar panel efficiency, around 15%. Call it 10%, after inefficiencies and conversion losses.

So, in the northeast USA, it would take 30 square meters of solar panels to half-charge the Nissan Leaf each day. On average. Panels, mounting, batteries, inverter, probably around $20k. Not cost effective at current price and efficiencies. But in the southwest where you have double the sunlight, it's getting close.

You go right ahead on this juvenile assumption. I wish you luck in BELIEVING you'd be charging your Volt from solar.

The NorthEast is about 4 sunhours/day on the average. ASSUMING that -- all bets are off on getting to work most days. You're stuck with using the OldFraud method of charging from the utility company and THINKING that your panels are gonna keep up with BOTH the load for your house AND your go-kart.

But your REAL PROBLEM is that in the Leaf owners manual -- they want a 220V 32A service to run the charger. They're not doing that to be onery -- there are solid engineering reasons for that. With that service -- they specify 7 hours to full charge. IT's 20 HOURS at 110V service. PARTIALLY charging lithium bats will wreck havoc with the lifetime.

Certainly -- even you --- could do that math. If you had 7KW solar panel array ((~45 m2 !!!) and 4 hours of sunlight --- you MIGHT get the Leaf/Volt 1/2 charged. But then there'd be NOTHING left for your house.

This Rube Goldberg thinking is EXACTLY WHY --- fuels cells are gonna produce more realistic EVs..