Hacker News Reader

Comment by jimbob365 | Hacker News Reader

I can imagine solar panels being helpful if your car is parked in the sun during the day, allowing you to commute using the charge from that, but I struggle to see how this would help maximise the range. Wouldn't the 12km/h charging be inconsequential to a long car journey?

View on HN

It depends on the situation. If the car will be parked outside then charging 12km/h is very nice. During 8h at work that's 96km charged, that's enough for a daily commute and some shopping.

Yes, but this is probably meant for daily commute in which case (in the Netherlands at least, where this company is based) the commute usually is about 30-40km which makes it doable.

If you look at it: if they can deliver about 3-4kW of power (quite high, I guess they wont get there any time soon) you can manage to do all the things a normal car (gas) would do with the accessory belt (usually about 6hp max). So power the AC/Stereo/screens/windows/lights etc. It's not a lot but you get some extra miles from your charge which is always nice.

I would see the value for something in keeping the A/C going at a reasonable power without tapping the battery when you have to leave the car out in the sun. Also if you commute and can get a "free" recharge every sunny day.

Assuming you take a long trip where you average 80Km/h you still get over 100Km of extra range which is not bad.

Wouldn't it be more efficient to charge cars from electricity gathered from solar urban roofs ? Car parks would make ideal areas to cover with solar roofs in the style of gas-station roofs. They'd be generating electricity and keeping the cars beneath cool

My (UK) commute is 10 miles each way, so 3 hours of daylight would keep it topped up. And I have to park outside. It would be _perfect_ for my use case.

If their numbers add up this could be a game-changer.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com