Progressive Automotive X-Prize [Final] Round

[TheEnemy]

Doesn't look like anyone is taking advantage of that rule, per 1 kw generated you should have about 1HP give or take, that would be a significant portion of the energy needed.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by TheEnemy

Doesn't look like anyone is taking advantage of that rule, per 1 kw generated you should have about 1HP give or take, that would be a significant portion of the energy needed.

I think it has to do with the poor efficiency of current PV cells. The amount of area they could cover on the car would only give them a couple miles of additional range.

[TheEnemy]

A 200w pannel covers 12.5 ft^2, using my truck as a model, with a footprint of approx 5'X12' approx 75% usable space (if I use a shell on the back) gives me 720w, or approx 3/4 hp of usable power, (worst case).

Entering a 3000 lb vehicle with an abysmal (for the cars in the competition) .2cd and 20ft^2 frontal area in the calculator, at 45mph requires 5.36hp.

The panels would supply about 13.5% of the power needed, approx 10mpge improvement.

[NeilBlanchard]

The Solar Taxi got approximately 1/3rd of it's power from the panels it carried (trailer included):



The rest of the power was offset by a large-ish PV array in their home country. That part would not count by X-Prize rules.

[NeilBlanchard]

The first Group in the Range Test is starting at 9:00am EDT -- includes the Aptera, and both the Edison2 mainstream cars!

Watch it live here:

Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE on USTREAM: The $10 Million Competition for the best 100 MPGe production-capable cars. . Other Technology

[NeilBlanchard]

Our best SWAG about the range of the Aptera 2e is that it had ~11% charge left after the 100 mile 55mph Range Test at the X-Prize. They had to average 55mph, stopping every 5 laps/10 miles, so 9 stops during the 100 miles. Not bad,but not great...

[NeilBlanchard]

Okay, amp and Tata are out of the X-Prize. Everybody else has made it through the Range Test. We'll know if others are stopped by their MPGe results, sometime next week.

Here's a Tweet page that has some details on some of the EV's SOC at the end of the 100 miles (at 55mph average, with 9 stops; one every 10 miles):

Eric C. Cahill (AutoXPrizer) on Twitter

Extrapolating from these, it looks like the Aptera had ~11% left, and the TW4XP had ~20% left.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by TheEnemy

A 200w pannel covers 12.5 ft^2, using my truck as a model, with a footprint of approx 5'X12' approx 75% usable space (if I use a shell on the back) gives me 720w, or approx 3/4 hp of usable power, (worst case).

Entering a 3000 lb vehicle with an abysmal (for the cars in the competition) .2cd and 20ft^2 frontal area in the calculator, at 45mph requires 5.36hp.

The panels would supply about 13.5% of the power needed, approx 10mpge improvement.

Here's an example of solar panels applied to a Prius. He says he gains about 1 km for each hour of full sun. APRS Solar PHEV

[NeilBlanchard]

There *may* be an issue with the Tango. It may or may not have finished the Range Test under it's own power, so stay tuned.

[Patrick]

Neil, was the MPGe telemetry on the Edisons accurate or does the E85 conversion factor have to be applied? If it was accurate, it looks like they may not have made the required MPGe.