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Originally Posted by MetroMPG
His examples where it's feasible are the "absurdly impractical" solar electric racers, low speed electric vehicles, and e-bikes.
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Right, I was at a presentation for the MN solar racer teams car and they were talking about how at 55mph it took 12 pounds of force to push it along, a small fraction of what a "standard" car requires, but the rules they are fallowing also spec out the angle of the drivers seat back, more or less requiring the driver to sit upright, to make the vehicle more "practical" of course it was still a ~350 pound vehicle running on $100 each LRR limited production moped tires... but in comparison to our standard vehicle on the road there is so much room for improvement!
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All of which says in a round about way that our small number of commercially available electric vehicles are energy hogs, relatively speaking.
I'm looking forward to the day when efficiency of EV's becomes a competitive focus in that segment, as it has in the ICE segment.
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I agree, we don't need larger batteries, we need smaller vehicles!
I also know that it's not just possible but I know first hand, people who power their electric cars off solar, two live off grid all together and one guy around here just bought a partly built EV that he's finishing up and is going to charge off his brand new PV's and the first few months that I had my electric car I was charging it at my parents house off their PVs, but whenever someone asks me why my electric car is not covered with PVs I simply explain that I don't want to put a device like that, that is designed to last 50+ years on a vehicle, because the average vehicle is designed to last 7-8 years, also solar panels need to face the sun and here the ideal angle is 45 degrees, not flat, not 10 degrees, 45 degrees, there for they should be safely mounted on a poll or on a roof where they don't have to worry about being parked inside a building or under a tree.
Even if an EV owner is not putting solar on their roof, spending on new renewable energy electrical production has over taken new fossil fuel power plants for the first time, maybe because renewable energy produced electricity has a quicker pay back? who knows, but plugging in to the grid keeps getting cleaner while gasoline burning gets dirtier and gasoline refining is still the largest single use of electricity so that electrical production is already there and we're just shifting it to powering cars directly instead of indirectly.