Not sure where the 69 figure comes from. Top post has more info:
> As a back of the envelope calculation, if you covered the ~2.44 m2 roof of a VW ID3 with solar panels you'd probably see somewhere in the region of 244 kWh / year (based on typical UK solar panel generation per year - this would be more in a sunny place). At 4.3 miles/kWh that gives you just over 1000 miles / year of self charged driving.
The 4.3 is pretty optimistic, most cars are rated around 3 miles per kwh, but I digress. Optimistically it'd mean 1000 miles per year or 19 miles per week, or 2.7 miles per day.
I'd say firstly, this is already a niche category. The average car drives 30 miles a day, or more than 10x what this would charge under optimistic mileage.
Second, the extra weight would likely make this comparison even worse.
Third, not really cost-efficient, either, to install a complete solar system for every 2.5 metres. Much of the cost isn't in the panels but in the system around it.
Fourth, I doubt even the 69 mile a week category of people will still mostly have personal cars within 5-10 years. The flexible car rental market is taking off. In Amsterdam for example there's now about 100 thousand users of Sharenow alone, one of the multiple car rental providers, on a population of about 800 thousand people. Anyone who drives 69 miles a week or 10 miles a day, is typically better off renting. At a speed of 20 miles per hour you're looking at 30 minutes or 6 euros per day for your complete car usage costs, i.e. 180 a month. That's less than most cars (300-400 a month) cost in insurance, deprecation, taxes, fuel and parking in Europe. These companies are expanding sufficiently to allow most people in this low-usage group to do away with a personal car within 5 years I think. By the time these solarpanel cars could even start coming online, it's likely that most cars will have increased usage rates and that these solar panels won't even power a few percent of the mileage.
The market for people who drive less than 100 miles/week isn't a good target. You have way to much completion from existing stock. There are tons of $10k or less cars out there that will always be a better option than the sticker price of this car.
> As a back of the envelope calculation, if you covered the ~2.44 m2 roof of a VW ID3 with solar panels you'd probably see somewhere in the region of 244 kWh / year (based on typical UK solar panel generation per year - this would be more in a sunny place). At 4.3 miles/kWh that gives you just over 1000 miles / year of self charged driving.
The 4.3 is pretty optimistic, most cars are rated around 3 miles per kwh, but I digress. Optimistically it'd mean 1000 miles per year or 19 miles per week, or 2.7 miles per day.
I'd say firstly, this is already a niche category. The average car drives 30 miles a day, or more than 10x what this would charge under optimistic mileage.
Second, the extra weight would likely make this comparison even worse.
Third, not really cost-efficient, either, to install a complete solar system for every 2.5 metres. Much of the cost isn't in the panels but in the system around it.
Fourth, I doubt even the 69 mile a week category of people will still mostly have personal cars within 5-10 years. The flexible car rental market is taking off. In Amsterdam for example there's now about 100 thousand users of Sharenow alone, one of the multiple car rental providers, on a population of about 800 thousand people. Anyone who drives 69 miles a week or 10 miles a day, is typically better off renting. At a speed of 20 miles per hour you're looking at 30 minutes or 6 euros per day for your complete car usage costs, i.e. 180 a month. That's less than most cars (300-400 a month) cost in insurance, deprecation, taxes, fuel and parking in Europe. These companies are expanding sufficiently to allow most people in this low-usage group to do away with a personal car within 5 years I think. By the time these solarpanel cars could even start coming online, it's likely that most cars will have increased usage rates and that these solar panels won't even power a few percent of the mileage.