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The Sion has seating for 6, a range of 150+ miles, 7.5 square meters of solar cells, an air filtration system that uses moss, and a price of less than $18,000.
A German startup, Sono Motors, has just finished a successful crowdfunding campaign to take its Sion electric car prototype to the next step, and if all goes well over the next year or so, it could go into production as early as 2018. At a time when many auto companies are quickly trying to catch up to the electric car trend with their own electric models (thanks, Tesla), the Sion is one of the only examples of an electric vehicle that includes a self-charging aspect, which could make it the perfect vehicle for enabling free 'fuel' for those with short commutes.
Although the Sion can be charged via a plug like other electric vehicles (EVs), this car also has solar cells integrated into its body, which the developers say are capable of delivering a charge to the vehicle's battery that can power it up to 30 km (18.6 miles) every day. With a top speed of 140 kmh (86 mph), it's not designed to be an electric sports car, by any means, but with seating for 6 and a 250 km range (155 miles), at a price of under $18,000, it just might be the affordable solar electric car we've been waiting for.
It's a product promo but it shows the inevitable evolution of the electric car concept. It seems they're also missing the opportunity to generate power with Stirling engines that exploit the temperature differential between the inside of the hot car and the outside.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2016, @02:06AM
> the developers say are capable of delivering a charge to the vehicle's battery that can power it up to 30 km (18.6 miles) every day.
I'm sure that's under the most optimal conditions, like the longest day of the year, in the Sahara and the car is re-oriented every 5 minutes to track the sun.
They should hire Joe Isuzu to update his schtick for solar cars.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2016, @02:12AM
Don't you mean to say, "It's just not musky enough!!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2016, @02:15AM
Lets say it is half that. Their range is 150ish. so 7/150 or about 4% of the range. Not too bad.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday September 10 2016, @02:44AM
30 km is 12% of 250 km. Half of that would be 6%.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday September 10 2016, @03:39AM
Since a lot of the panels are on the sides of the car, facing horizontally, I call BS. Even in the most optimum conditions, the solar panels are not going to produce enough charge for 30km. Perhaps if you surrounded the car with mirrors that reflect the sunlight onto those horizontal panels ....
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday September 10 2016, @11:01PM
Horizontal panels would work well in the Sahara, or anywhere close to the Equator.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday September 11 2016, @12:41AM
That depends on what you mean by horizontal and vertical. I was describing the way the panels face, not the plane of the hardware.
My point is that the panels on the side of the vehicle will produce very little electricity and those panels represent somewhere about 2/3 of the total panel area. Thus, even in the best conditions, their claim about how much electricity will be produced is bullshit.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday September 11 2016, @06:17AM
The panels on the sides of the car won't do much in the Sahara or other places near the Equator. They will, however, collect some sunlight at higher latitudes--the higher the latitude, the more effective they will be (and the less effective will be those on the roof and bonnet that I prefer to call "horizontal").
The claim being made is that the panels could provide 30 km of travel per day. If we suppose there could be 6 hours of bright sunlight in a day, it's similar to a claim that the vehicle could move at 5 km/h during the brightest part of the day, entirely on the energy collected from the panels. I don't know whether you noticed my post mentioning the Sunraycer, but in 1987 that vehicle crossed Australia, travelling 3000 km in less than 6 days, at an average speed of 67 km/h. What Sono Motors is claiming is much less than that; more efficient photovoltaic cells and motors may be available now.
(Score: 1) by driven on Saturday September 10 2016, @06:00AM
I'm sure that's under the most optimal conditions, like the longest day of the year, in the Sahara and the car is re-oriented every 5 minutes to track the sun.
Probably, but not unlike MPG figures for gasoline/diesel powered cars. Those are definitely optimal conditions, too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2016, @12:13PM
Not even in the same league.
The MPG numbers are for certain predefined conditions that are definitely not optimal, they can be optimized for, but they are not optimal down-hill-in-a-hurricane conditions.
(Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Saturday September 10 2016, @04:39PM
It's got 7.5 m2 of solar cells. Assuming they get the equivalent of 2 m2 of oriented cells - a reasonable guess, looking at the car - that's about 500 watts.
Park it outside all day you might get 3 or 4 KWHrs into the battery. That would get you 30 km of sedate driving.
It also matches pretty well with their claimed range of 250 km on a 30 KWHr battery.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.