I'm not an expert or engineer, but I suspect that we're about at the stage where it would be possible to build an EV capable of a few dozen miles of daily travel, using solely sunlight from its own PV.
It might even be a bit more civilized and comfortable than the solar challenge racers. In fact, a few such prototypes have been built. The question is, could you afford it? High efficiency PV is *expensive* and is apt to be for quite a while yet. And if you were a multi-millionaire or billionaire and could afford it, would you want a radically different-looking and different-acting vehicle that didn't have a boulevard ride and neck-snapping acceleration? Would you be willing to accept the other limitations? You couldn't park it in the garage - a likely show stopper for a car that would cost well into 6 or even 7 figures - or in the shade. You couldn't spend much time driving in the rain, or on cloudy days, or on city streets shaded by tall buildings. Again - I don't think it's impossible, just not very practical, and certainly not practical for normal middle-class folks. I think that instead of wasting our research time and resources on developing bragging-rights toys for the rich and famous, we should concentrate on promoting things that significant numbers of normal people CAN do, such as 1. Getting them to adopt EVs 2. Helping them put PV on their own homes That means we need to stop letting legislators pass anti-EV laws, such as EV/hybrid license surtaxes. We need them to instead pass laws providing EV incentives, and forcing the utilities to quit making grid-tie PV unaffordable. Unfortunately so far voters don't seem to give much thought to those matters when they go to the polls. That probably includes some folks right on this list. David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people, "I offer you a good time," Hitler has said to them, "I offer you struggle, danger and death." As a result, a whole nation flings itself at his feet. -- George Orwell = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
