Ford to unveil solar-powered concept car

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Ford to unveil solar-powered concept car

Associated Press
The Guardian, Thursday 2 January 2014 17.33 GMT

Ford plans to unveil at this month's International CES gadget show a solar-powered concept car that offers the same performance as a plug-in hybrid but without the need for a plug.

The C-MAX Solar Energi Concept car uses a petrol engine combined with an innovation that acts like a magnifying glass to concentrate the sun's rays on the vehicle's roof-mounted solar panels. The car maker says the vehicle's estimated combined city-highway mileage will be 100 milesper gallon.

Ford says that by using solar power instead of an electric plug, a typical owner will reduce their annual greenhouse gas emissions by four metric tons.

The company sold some 85,000 hybrid or electric vehicles in 2013, including 6,300 units of its C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/02/ford-solar-powered-concept-car

[NYC_SKP]

1. Magnifying won't really make this into a magic solar car.

It's a great idea, I just hope people realize that there's only so much solar energy reaching the surface of a car and even at 100% efficiency, the number of miles you can drive for one day's worth of sunshine would be very minimal and not eliminate the need to plug in.

Still, I'd buy one!

[Kaleva]

2. The article says that a full charge (from 1 day of sunshine) ought to give a range of 620 miles

[caraher]

4. The all-electric range is basically 20 miles

The LA Times article clarifies this:

The automaker will begin testing of the C-Max, which has a range of about 21 miles on electricity before a gasoline engine kicks in and extends the range to 600 miles, and the canopy later this year. Ford has not released any estimates on how much the system would cost if it is commercialized.

[PamW]

5. Gasoline is 600 miles of that range

You have got to be kidding.

You have no concept of how LITTLE energy there is in a couple square meters of sunshine for a day.

NO WAY is that amount of energy going to take you 620 miles.

The gasoline engine gives you about 600 miles of that 620 miles; NOT the sunshine.

PamW

[Kaleva]

7. Of course and the article makes makes clear that the vehicle is hybrid.

To get up to the vehicles maximum potential range of 620 miles though, the batteries need to be fully charged and that is what I said.

"The article says that a full charge (from 1 day of sunshine) ought to give a range of 620 miles"

One will not get 620 miles without a full charge.

[PamW]

11. No 620 miles on battery..

Read the LA Time excerpt that caraher posted above.

A full charge of the batteries gives you 21 miles.

The other 600 miles of the car's range comes from using GASOLINE in the car's internal combustion engine.

NOBODY has a battery that gives you 600+ miles on the battery.

You get 21 miles on the fully charged battery.

You get 600 miles from using GASOLINE

PamW

[Kaleva]

13. Where did I ever say that the car can go 620 miles on battery alone?

But this hybrid, according to Ford, is capable of going 620 mile with a fully charged battery. Without a charged battery, the vehicle has a range of 600 miles.

[PamW]

14. A legitimate interpretation...

A legitimate interpretation of the following statement from your post above:

The article says that a full charge (from 1 day of sunshine) ought to give a range of 620 miles

is that the range of 620 miles comes from the full charge, which in turn comes from 1 day of sunshine.

That sequence doesn't involve the gasoline engine.

Sunshine --> full charge ---> 620 miles of range.

One can't be certain from the above that the person that said it didn't understand that electricity didn't give 620 miles.

It isn't apparent that given the above alone; that a legitimate interpretation is that the person didn't understand that 600+ miles of the range of the car came from gasoline instead of electricity.

PamW

[Kaleva]

15. But we both read the article and thus we both already knew....

that the vehicle being discussed is a hybrid. Your assumption that I meant that the car could travel 620 miles on a fully charged battery alone is not my fault. You could have simply asked me to clarify my remark.

[caraher]

3. Clearer article

From the LA Times, two key points. First,

The solar panels on top of the C-Max can capture only enough energy to charge up the battery to about one-eighth full — good for maybe three miles of electric-powered driving — during the day.

And about the "concentrator:"

To make the system more useful the automaker has developed a special concentrator that acts like a magnifying glass, directing intense rays to solar panels on the vehicle’s roof, Tinskey said.

When parked under the concentrator canopy — which covers an area a little bigger than a typical parking space — the car will autonomously make adjustments to its position to capture the most sunlight.

It sounds like getting that maximum charge depends on having a good place to set up that canopy, and that you need more room than a standard parking space.

[PamW]

6. Evidently...

Evidently, the lens system optimizes for the angle of the sun relative to the car.

In any case, even with an optimizer; the car can get no more than what it could get if it had incident sunlight heading straight on to the couple of square meters of area for a day.

The amount of energy in a couple of square meters of sunlight for a day is the max the car could get.

That amount won't be a heck of a lot; enough to travel several minutes out and back.

Sunlight for a day isn't going to carry you on a cross-country trip.

PamW

[caraher]

8. It's a bit odd that they talk about range the way they do

The car's range is essentially independent of those solar cells, because it's range comes from operating as an ordinary hybrid car.

The clever part is that if most of your driving is very short trips (<10-20 miles/day), the solar charging might cover you.

From my perspective, if it's sunny enough to charge my car and I'm only going 10-20 miles, I'm going to ride my bike instead, unless I need to haul more than I can carry.

It's also not clear that this would offer any significant advantage over having a plug-in hybrid together with a solar array that you won't wind up scrapping with your car. While they mention not needing to install charging stations, it still seems preferable to cover a parking lot with solar panels, and have the charging infrastructure in place (which can work when it's not sunny and can interact appropriately with the grid) rather than put the energy collection device on an essentially disposable vehicle.

[kristopher]

9. It's a show car, nothing more than a publicity gimmick

Ford was pretty clear in their statement that they have no intention at all of marketing something like this; it was just a concept car for display at auto shows.

[caraher]

10. True, but it's potentially confusing people who don't get that

Believe me, we'll have people who now think you can drive an otherwise ordinary car 600+ miles on one day's worth of sunlight based on this kind of gimmick.

[PamW]

12. Don't look now..

Don't look now... we already do.

PamW