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Comment by petcat | Hacker News Reader

Charging an EV from regular household solar panels would take days....

And that's assuming they are sunny days.

I think your math is off some how. I have a Model 3 and two Leafs and we charge them from our 39 400 Watt panels without trouble. They are always ready to go fully charged unless one of the boys has been doing more than normal of driving to the beach with a girlfriend and then borrowing the Model 3 for a concert, or whatever fun involves using all the stored energy at the same time (e.g. not commutes to school or work).

It takes about a 6-8 hours to charge my Leaf on a small solar install.

But yes, it needs to be sunny if that’s going to be pure solar.

I realize the person you're replying to wasn't specific and said just "EV" but a leaf and a cybertruck are pretty much the polar ends of a spectrum.

Ok but the problem with this argument is that you could come up with a hypothetical EV that can store enough energy to last a year and then take a year to charge.

And yet nothing prevents you from driving daily.

What matters is how much range you drive and recharge, not how big your battery is.

There are many hours in a day and EVs are pretty efficient. You might struggle if your goal is to drive 200km per day but if all you want is to drive to work or go shopping, you'll be fine.

What? My BIL’s installation is small, roughly 8kWp, on sunny days he easily gets 40-50kWh, if not more.

The Cybertruck has a 123kW battery, so charging it would take days, assuming they are sunny days.

because solar panels only exist on houses?

Because EVs are only powered by solar?

Who said they were?

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