Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevil
When a company designs, presents and actually builds the most economical car ever you'd think the incrowd of Ecomodder would show at least some enthousiasm.
Instead the reception is like what you'd get if you hand out iPhones in a pensioners's home. Probably worse, even.
OK boomers, I wasted my time. Beam me up Scotty, no life here.
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I'm excited about it as a science project for college kids, not as a consumer product. My curiosity is in the data, like where is the thing used, average daily kWh charging via solar vs wall power... stuff like that.
There's more economical cars than that like:
...but then we get into a "those are apples and that's an orange" discussion, because everything that is not completely identical is an apples and oranges discussion.
My enthusiasm for things like solar power and efficiency are tempered by reality. That leads me to the reality that permanently fixing solar panels in an optimal location is more efficient than lugging them around on a car. So really, there's no conflict between my interest in efficiency and this engineering experiment.
Then there's the fact that it's easier to criticize something terrible than it is to propose something excellent.
Anyhow, I'm a Millennial, and iPhones don't excite me, whatever that says about me.
I meant no disrespect to you RD, and I'm grateful that you shared this news. It's just my knee-jerk reaction whenever the topic of solar vehicles comes up. I'd rather be wrong about it being a terrible idea, which is why I'm always hoping someone will show me how I hadn't thought this through correctly, or that I don't have the necessary info to make such a judgement.
As an aside, I built an electric car in highschool, and the rules of the race allowed for 1m^2 of PV. Back in 1999 that would have been fantastically expensive on a highschool budget. Then it would have performed poorly in Oregon. Finally, it would have been destroyed in the first crash (there were many). I entertained that idea more than just about anything else, but there was no way to justify it.