Van instead of SUV?

[freebeard]

A self garaging motorbike with solar panels:



Future Transportation - SunRed Solar Motorbike Wraps In A Retractable Shell With Solar Panels

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary

I've often thought of this for some of my friends and family that live in poorer countries.

I live in a poorer country.

An EV would require very little maintenance and the solar would basically be free fuel.

Free fuel sounds quite attractive, but since many 3rd-world countries have a state-owned oil company it doesn't seem so likely to happen. But anyway, a plug-in hybrid still sounds more likely to succeed than an all-electric vehicle.

Or make 3 solar panels up there that slide into one big panel that tilts. an 8ft x 20ft panel that slides into a 24ft x 20ft panel could easily make as much as 6kW, plenty of juice on sunny days to get your daily 30 miles. There are kits as low as $250 per kW now available, so about $1,500 plus frames, glass, and charge controllers.

It would probably be at least the double of that price in Brazil, due to import duties and other taxes

[Isaac Zackary]

The nice thing about where my in-laws live is it's right across the boarder in Mexico. I could make it here and then drive it across the boarder like your average American tourist driving a solar powered van.

I'm not sure how I'd get a solar vehicle to my sister in Belize.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

If I lived in the U.S. and near the Mexican border I'd be tempted to get a Toyota Hiace and keep it with Mexican plates, even if I would need to have an address in Mexico too. Have already considering to do something like this here in Brazil in order to (legally) have access to some cars that are available in neighboring countries such as Uruguay and Argentina.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Definitely I must have been born in the wrong country. Notice the Argentinian plates in the Renault Kangoo converted to CNG and the Paraguayan plates in the JDM Toyota FunCargo:

[iikhod]

We got those funcargos/yaris versos here in finland, with also 1.4 diesel engines, some registered as vans.

[teoman]

I had a mb suv that i sold. Then i used a fiat doblo 1.3 multijet for a couple of months.

I must say creature comforts are not quite the same but functionnality wise it was phenomenal.

I could haul all my junk including a dirtbike. Fuel economy was good, 5.6 l/100km in traffic and 4.5l/100km eco driving...

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by iikhod

We got those funcargos/yaris versos here in finland, with also 1.4 diesel engines, some registered as vans.

When I said I like vans, I didn't mean it in the sense of strictly-commercial vehicles.

BTW spotted this Chinese JMC Touring with Bolivian plates today.

[Isaac Zackary]

If I never end up convincing myself to make a pusher trailer for my electric car I will likely buy a MAZDA5 minivan with a manual transmission.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary

If I never end up convincing myself to make a pusher trailer for my electric car I will likely buy a MAZDA5 minivan with a manual transmission.

Even though I'm not unfavorable to automatic transmissions, especially because they enable usage of "space-saving" shifters, that seems to be a good option.