Sono Sion - Solar Assisted EV
 

I thought this car was already posted, but I guess not. This is a startup, that is looking better and better as they refine their design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lawceRhwoAc

https://www.sonomotors.com/img/sion/...ors_design.jpg

https://ecomento.de/wp-content/uploa...uto-2017-1.jpg

https://s3.paultan.org/image/2017/07...65-630x356.jpg

It could probably collect a few KwH per day.

https://www.sonomotors.com/sion.html

80kw motor. Doesn't say how much it weighs. Up to 30km a day via solar power.

That sounds about right but pretty optimistic.

I am not sure how a polycarbonate car body would behave in a collision!

Why did they waste solar panels on the sides? Or is that just an applique to make the car look cooler?

When the sun is low, the cells on one of the sides produce some power. When the sun is higher in the sky, the cells on the roof and hood produce power.

If the cells are light and cheap, why not?

I like the shape.

Because they do add weight and are not cheap?

No way they're getting more than 5-10% of those cells' ideal output any given day. For the same cost, I bet they could get way more range by adding to the battery pack.

Each of those flex panels weigh under 4 lbs are up to 28% efficient and due to the design are more efficient at collecting indirect light than a standard poly panel.

This isn't 1999 anymore, a lot of foreign panels are getting to be very efficient at hobby prices .

Is this a reading comprehension failure?

I said 5-10% of their ideal output. Not that 5-10% was their ideal efficiency. I'm sure they can do fine assumed directly at the sun, but those aren't getting anything close to that. Ever. Under any circumstances. I'll stand behind my overall estimate of 5-10% of ideal.

Hell, even if you get them exactly perpendicular to the sun in the late afternoon, they'll only be getting within 25-30 degrees of the sun. And it'll be late afternoon so solar energy will be reduced already. And... Aiming one side at the sun means the other side it's totally shaded! Max 50% off the top without el anything else right there.

Nope. Side panels = dumb dumb dumb.

It is a German car.
At Northern European latitudes, mornings and evenings are long and the sun is only above 45 degrees for a few hours in the late spring and early summer.
Even in Germany a flat orientation is more efficient than a vertical one, but the difference is not as large as it would be closer to the equator.
The space is available, so if the weight is low - why not? It could easily add a few miles of range.

Can we still party like it is?

Clear, Liquid Coating Turns Windows Into Solar Panels

Agreed. I have found that panels laid on a flat vehicle roof produce around half of name plate rated power. Even in sunny New Mexico.
Since I have actually put panels on top of a vehicle and tracked their output, I know this.

Interesting to notice it has a tow hitch.

Update on this car:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Iwv1BpewA

Interesting.

750kg tow rating, and a terrarium in the dashboard.

Any color but black and the solar panels are very obvious.

It sounds great, but it's too good to be true. There's no way a carbon fiber structure, solar-powered BEV will come in at $18,000.

But I still want one.

Producing parts is cheap. Like fiberglass boats but wierder. Tooling & ovens to make many parts fast & accurate is $$$$$$$. I can see $30,000

Unless they had some large-volume fleet orders that could speed up the ROI on the equipments meant to make the carbon-fiber structure, $18000 doesn't sound realistic.

The car seen so far is a 'disguised' BMW i3.
If it goes into production they'll have to essentially replace everything underneath that body kit.

Niki Gordon Bloomfield clarified / corrected the $18,000 price - you have to pay more to buy or rent the battery.

So — Batteries not included

Solar on a vehicle is dumb.

Solar cells on the car will help about 5-10%, which is not nothing. If they can charge while the car is parked, they can help more.

It's not nothing, but it's still dumb.

The solar panels would be more effective installed on the roof of a house, preferably in Arizona. Encouraging a car owner to leave their car in the sun is dumb. The expense of solar and the poor results of mounting it to a vehicle is dumb.

The whole concept is dumb from beginning to end.

Considering that it would then most likely have to resort to that very same solar energy to run the A/C in order to keep a comfortable temperature, it would basically neglect the claimed benefits of having the solar panels. But I'm still not totally disfavorable to the fitment of solar panels to a car, as long as it spends a lot of time outside instead of being babied at a garage. Well, in a lot of places it's not uncommon to leave the vehicles parked outside...

A test drive with the prototype
 

Dutch, sorry for that.
https://www.nu.nl/246023/video/eerst...nnecellen.html

Excerpts from the video:
The solar cells add up to 30 km of range per day.
Total range is about 250 reallife km.
Top speed is 140 km/h (85 mph)
Acceleration 0-100 km/h: 9 seconds
Available options: - (e.g.: None. Yes.)
Price: € 16,000 + € 4,000 for the battery.

The green stuff in the dash is live Icelandic moss, which acts as an interior air filter. Ow yeah.

https://res.cloudinary.com/engineeri...ior_hophy7.jpg
https://www.engineering.com/Electron...ffordable.aspx

I wonder if they turn off the lights in the terrarium at night.

[Counting down the days until the EU requires a license for that link?]

I could live with Islandic moss (as long as it can live with me that is)

http://www.hdcarwallpapers.com/walls...nterior-HD.jpg
The Mercedes Maybach Concepts tape worm aquarium - not so much.

Seat bottoms sized to the American bee-hind?

Sadly, the price has gone up - quite a bit - on this car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKSbbW0ySRo

Fully Charged has a close look, and a bit of a drive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLZKdkgB85k

Did the dive include how dumb solar is on a car, including the cost?

No, but they actually drove the car.

Too bad the car is $29,000 which is too much in the current market with proven brands in the mix at similar pricing.

Semi flex solar panels are about $0.37 a watt
1200watts = $444

Which honestly isn’t that bad, Solar is getting down to hobbiest pricing which starts to deflate arguments against it.

If my truck had some solar maybe it wouldn’t phantom drain it’s battery in the winter causing failure.

$444 will buy me 5550 kWh of electricity. How many days would it take to generate 5550 kWh, given overcast days, parked in a garage where cars are supposed to be parked, sitting under the shade of a tree...

Whole thing is dumb.

My 360W panels have never produced more than 320Wh in a day (converted to petrol that's 0.02l per day or about $10 a year!), the part where it really gets to be a gimmick is when they mount the panels vertically on the sides of the car, probably producing an average of 2% of their rated output :confused:

Of course that $0.37/W doesn't count mounting, controllers and wires. My install using best practice and quality parts cost around $1000. Cheap panels fail long before payback, expensive panels might too.

To get a different “radio” package on certain cars you have to pay about $2500

How many radios can you buy for $2500?


To get different OEM wheels as an option can be over $5000,
How many tires can you get for $5000?


Lots of things are stupid in new cars, luckily once the car is used the cost of entry goes down And further have a mass produced option reduces the cost of entry further.


I’ve never parked in a garage and there are no trees in the lot where I park every day.

Yeah, but radios are useful in a car. Solar panels aren't.

Since I have no interest in this dumb project, I haven't studied it. What is the total rated kW output of the solar panels they have installed?