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Squad says in sunny climes like Las Vegas you may never need to charge it:
It's that time of year when the CES email spam goes into overdrive. I won't be on the ground in Las Vegas in 2023 for the gigantic consumer tech trade show, but one pitch almost—well, ok, partly—makes me regret that, because it seems like an interesting idea. It's a new city car from a Dutch company called Squad Mobility; a relatively ungainly thing if I'm honest, but one that suggests a tantalizing solution to the problem of city-dwellers needing EVs but not having anywhere to charge them.
[...] The problem is that, while solar panels are a great way to get energy, you need quite a lot of area to harvest enough to run something as power-hungry as an automobile. Covering a sedan's roof with photovoltaics—as Hyundai has done with the Sonata hybrid—might generate a peak of 600 W, which is enough to run the air conditioning and keep the 12 V battery charged.
[...] Which brings us back to the Squad solar city car, designed by a pair of former Lightyear employees. Much smaller than the examples listed above, it conforms to the regulations for Low Speed Vehicles here in the US, meant for EVs that have a speed cap of 25 mph (40 km/h).
Built around a solid-looking tubular roll-cage, the solar city car is styled mostly for practicality. On its roof is a solar panel with a peak output of 250 W that feeds the 6.4 kWh battery pack. It has three-point seatbelts and even cupholders, but the biggest draw might be the price—$6,585 (€6,250) when it goes on sale in the US in 2024. That battery powers a pair of 2 kW motors, one driving each rear wheel.
Squad says that on a sunny day in the Netherlands, the solar panel adds up to 13.6 miles (22 km) of range per day; in sunnier Las Vegas that could be as much as 19.2 miles (31 km). The battery packs are swappable and portable, and fully charged the pack has a range of 62 miles (100 km). And yes, you can charge the packs via plugging into a 110 V AC outlet if it's not sunny.
"We are seeing a tremendous interest from the USA, specifically for markets such as sharing platforms, gated communities, campuses, (seaside) resorts, tourism, company terrains, hotels & resorts, amusement parks and inner city services," said Robert Hoevers, one of Squad's co-founders.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MrGuy on Sunday December 11, @12:01PM (3 children)
Sorry. It sounds cool. So do https://solarroadways.com/ [soylentnews.org] ”>Solar Friggin Roadways.
But they’re not practical. Because they’re a poor way to generate solar power. Solar panels work best when they’re stationary, well-sited, and protected from weather, impact, and vibration.
Sure, you can generate a piddling extra amount of range while you’re driving, which sounds great. But it’s not much. It would take this charger 26 hours of peak sunlight (at least 2 uninterrupted days) to charge the battery.
Meanwhile, you’ve added a huge cost to the vehicle. You have a solar panel that will likely be spending a fair amount of time in the shade or a garage. Your solar panel has to absorb the mechanical jolts of driving around on roadways. It will have to be vibration resistant (or, much more likely, have a high failure rate compared to the life of the vehicle.).
It would almost certainly be cheaper and more effective to add the additional range by adding a little extra battery, and buying an already-existing commodity solar panel to throw on the roof of your garage to help charge it.
Solar is great. Use it where it makes sense. This is not the use case that makes sense.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Sunday December 11, @03:05PM
You're right about the fact that this is a silly development. But this is targeted at city dwellers, who don't have a garage, or even their own roof. These people are used to impractical living, so they'll buy them.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday December 11, @06:59PM
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday December 11, @10:49PM
I agree on the road, but for a slow cruising boat it actually makes some sense: https://polboat.se/ [polboat.se]
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