Sono Motors Sion - solar EV...
Discussion
Just saw this via fullycharged on YouTube....test drives from early 2017 they say.
https://www.sonomotors.com/sion/
Nice vid:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sion-a-solarcar...
Not sure on the backgrounds of the team, seems quite an ambitious project to me but will be interesting to see how (if) it gets anywhere.
https://www.sonomotors.com/sion/
Nice vid:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sion-a-solarcar...
Not sure on the backgrounds of the team, seems quite an ambitious project to me but will be interesting to see how (if) it gets anywhere.
Max_Torque said:
Vapourware, or worse, crowdfunding scamware.....
Peak solar insolation is around 1kW per m^2, and that's for helistatic panels, not those on the roof and side of a moving car, so typically i'd halve that basic insolation number to 500W/m^2.
Peak efficiency for solar panels is currently around 25% for REALLY expensive ones, so that's down to 125W/m^2.
Total useful/useable (sun only shines from one direction) surface area on what looks to be a conventionally styled 2 box passenger car, i'd estimate to around 3m^2, So we have 375W availible from our panel array
Lets be generous and say there are 6 hours a day with FULL sunshine (in reality, even with heliostatic panels, the extra length of atmosphere the solar rays have to travel through in evening/morning are a further limit). so in a day we have availible 2.25kWh of energy
Assuming sensible efficiency for the DC:DC converter and battery storage system of 90%, we capture a total of 2.025kWh a day.
Now a really well optimsied, but conventional EV (ie an leaf/i3 etc) which doesn't use too any low drag tricks (ie, not a solar race challenge car, that looks like a teardrop, and seats just one small adult in huge discomfort, and would completely crumple and kill you stone dead in the minor RTA) uses about 168Wh/Km.
So you can travel just 12km per day.
To get to their claimed "30 free kilometers per day are possible just from the electricity generated by the sun" would take a solar array of around 7.5m2, something very difficult indeed to package onto a conventional car!
Which is why, or course, solar challenge cars look like this:
and NOT like this:
Thanks, very interesting. My simpler fag packet calcs come up with the same result. ;-)Peak solar insolation is around 1kW per m^2, and that's for helistatic panels, not those on the roof and side of a moving car, so typically i'd halve that basic insolation number to 500W/m^2.
Peak efficiency for solar panels is currently around 25% for REALLY expensive ones, so that's down to 125W/m^2.
Total useful/useable (sun only shines from one direction) surface area on what looks to be a conventionally styled 2 box passenger car, i'd estimate to around 3m^2, So we have 375W availible from our panel array
Lets be generous and say there are 6 hours a day with FULL sunshine (in reality, even with heliostatic panels, the extra length of atmosphere the solar rays have to travel through in evening/morning are a further limit). so in a day we have availible 2.25kWh of energy
Assuming sensible efficiency for the DC:DC converter and battery storage system of 90%, we capture a total of 2.025kWh a day.
Now a really well optimsied, but conventional EV (ie an leaf/i3 etc) which doesn't use too any low drag tricks (ie, not a solar race challenge car, that looks like a teardrop, and seats just one small adult in huge discomfort, and would completely crumple and kill you stone dead in the minor RTA) uses about 168Wh/Km.
So you can travel just 12km per day.
To get to their claimed "30 free kilometers per day are possible just from the electricity generated by the sun" would take a solar array of around 7.5m2, something very difficult indeed to package onto a conventional car!
Which is why, or course, solar challenge cars look like this:
and NOT like this:
Edited by Max_Torque on Tuesday 25th October 16:54
Our 4kWhp solar PV array is about 26m2 and captures around 22kWh on a very good day so 3m2 of car could give you circa 2.5kWh in the battery in a day.
A leaf does around 3 miles per kWh so that's 7.5miles or 12km.
In reality our roof faces south and I'd imagine the panels/inverter etc are rather more efficient than ones packaged into a car - so you'd get a few miles (on a very good day if you had a good parking space)!
Well they appear to have got something up and running. Are those stalks from an i3?! Love the moss!
https://youtu.be/87WBmdqjp-I
More info, still saying 30km per day from the solar in ideal conditions.
https://sonomotors.com/sion.html
They make this EV malarkey seem quick, easy and cheap ;-)
Test drive tour if anyone can make it:
https://youtu.be/lawceRhwoAc
https://youtu.be/87WBmdqjp-I
More info, still saying 30km per day from the solar in ideal conditions.
https://sonomotors.com/sion.html
They make this EV malarkey seem quick, easy and cheap ;-)
Test drive tour if anyone can make it:
https://youtu.be/lawceRhwoAc
Edited by danp on Wednesday 20th September 21:44
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