I'm looking for a car with great range. Nothing matches an Aptera with it's 600 or more mile range. The fact that it recharges itself is pure gravy, but useful for trips to the wilds.
@@larryscott3982 The usual wild places for me are the Adirondacks in NY and the 10,000 Lakes region of Ontario north of Barrie. Want to explore other places as well.
and there's no way you could just buy this car and expect not to pay for the power u use, probably gonna pay the car company for the power you generate or something, there's always a catch with these, this really just feels like a glorified ad.
Aptera = 300 to 1000 miles depending upon the trim level selected. Lightyear One I believe is expected to be in the 200-400 miles range. Sono Motors Sion I believe is expected to have a range of 110-150 miles. It's all on their websites.
@Fed Rai | I don’t think the !whole! thing is bullcrap … but yes, a few grains of salt need to be added. (and by few, I mean many many more than they let on)
@Fed Rai I think EngineeringExplained debunked solar powered cars because the can't produce enough energy over the course of a year. Edit: OK his conclusion was about 40 miles a day so it can work.
@@james10o1 I feel like he's being disingenuous. It's entirely about use case. Many people - like me - don't drive more than like 25miles/day at most, for 5 days a week. You could easily power that car indefinitely on solar panels alone.
Adding usable solar to an EV makes it an SEV I would suppose. Like adding two wheels to a motorcycle makes it a car, similar but not the same. Either way, its just an attention getting title to get people to watch the video obviously, like millions of other videos do.
Aptera says they are starting production at the end of this year. Probably a bit optimistic considering they just came out with the beta version. They have a long waiting list, so it will probably a couple of years before they are easily available.
This is cool, but why isn't it just better to have solar on your house and charge the car whit that electricity? Your car would be safer, and it would benefit the grind your on. ( if your car is full that solar panel is doing nothing)
@@BrotherAlpha It's way more expensive on a car than on a house, also extra weight for the car which is counterproductive and of course affects the design of it. It's better to focus on a lightweight and super efficient electric vehicle instead, something which is quite the opposite of what the automotive industry is doing, by creating massive electric SUVs which are completely stupid carbon footprint wise.
@Donny Tee "Solar on the house is useless in overcast sky or rain." No they are not. They run at between 10% to 25% and while that's not ideal it is hardly useless.
@@amigodesigns "It's way more expensive on a car than on a house, also extra weight for the car which is counterproductive..." I think advances in solar panels are making these arguments less compelling. The costs and sizes are going down so much that the reduced battery size needed makes solar powered cars viable. At least that's how I see it. Maybe I'm wrong here. Not my area of expertise.
This is exactly what we needed, a car with both solar panels to generate electric power and lithium batteries to store electric energy while also being able to plug to the grid and get energy from the grid whenever necessary.
Seeker has really gone downhill with the clickbait titles. Neither of these companies are anywhere near production ready. No discussion whatsoever on issues or realities to explain why solar powered cars aren't "here" yet. This is more like a 10 minute infomercial/pitch. Should have slapped the "contains advertising" label.
These two companies and Sono Motors have a target release date for their products of about 1-2 years. They aren't building anything fundamentally new, just putting together pieces in a way that hasn't been done before, so it isn't outlandish to expect to see these companies reach small-scale production in 1-2 years. Aptera plans to sell their Sol SBEV for between $30,000-$50,000, Sono Motors Sion for ~$35,000, and the Lightyear One is projected to cost ~$150,000.
Bikes require fuel in the form of food for the bicyclist. What the carbon footprint of that food? If you’re a vegan it’s 5x less than a gas car. If you’re a carnivore it’s worse than driving a diesel car. These solar EVs would be better than riding a bike.
@@Xiph1980 yes that's true but the problem is with weight reduction the crash can actually be worse for the passenger even if the car is perfectly fine. You have to take momentum to account, in a head on collision the heavier car is the safer option (if the cars are equally as strong) this is partially why you don't normally see seat belts on a bus. So when they keep bragging about weight savings they are forgetting the basics of a collision MOMENTUM. It is also worth noting that mass doesn't have anything to with drag if the cars have identical body shapes. The shape of the car is also of concern, "He doesn't know why they are bricks" well perhaps that because its a popular looking shape? Sure the other car has less than half the drag of a normal "brick" car but it looks rediculous. Even with all it's benefits you're going to struggle to sell that car to the public simply with how rediculous it looks, there's a reason other "radical design shape changes" haven't caught on.
I think many are just seeing this for the first time. A little more exposure and they will be wondering why their next new vehicle isn't doing as well as these two.
Most important question remained unasked and unanswered: how big is the battery inside of it? Presumably it has one so that it doesn't grind to a halt at a first cloud that passes over, but how far can it travel when it's cloudy or at night? And what's the top speed? If it can or can't hit highway speeds would be an extremely important consideration to buyers.
So you dissed the lithium-ion battery for electric vehicles, at the beginning of the vid and did I miss you pointing out which battery the Aptera uses? Isn't it a lithium-ion battery?
The key is that they need LESS lithium-ion batteries to travel the same distance. Far less. Rather than people needing large battery packs that they can "fill up" once every 1-2 weeks like current ICE cars, they can have very small "tanks" [battery packs] because the solar cells constantly refill or recharge the batteries. Having smaller battery packs in these cars is also how they are keeping costs low and efficiencies high [less weight].
Safety. Weight. Utility. Power. Range. The area of the vehicle for solar panels and the amount of power they can generate is not enough for any normal sized vehicles. Maybe one day in the future as I'm not against the idea. Tesla has a patent for using solar panels on the cover for the bed of the Cybertruck, but it won't add more than like 15 miles range per day or something. It's fun to see people working on the technology though. Considering we'll have ICE vehicles on the road until like 2050 or so the types of vehicles that will push them out have to be similar for now. Just from a safety perspective. No way the solar car here holds up in a crash test :/
The efficiency of the car, or power consumption is the main reason. Aptera uses a third or a quarter of the power other EVs use (100Wh per mile vs 240Wh+ per mile for other EVs), means that the small amount of power the solar powers generate adds a far more significant range than less efficient EVs
@@paulwary Maybe I should have written "completely stop" instead. My point was that you will still get some charge even though it is a cloudy day. Panels are often around 50-70% less effective with heavy clouds and 80-90% less effective with heavy rain. So it really depends on how far you want to drive, but the cars will still get charged when you are at work
Guys relax. I'm pro solar(own solar panels!) it's a joke. But I do think that solor panels on cars should be viewed as a "plus" not an "only" (AKA EV + solar.)
@3:20, What are you saying. These solar electric vehicles do have lithium batteries in them. Otherwise, not only what would happen when you enter a shadow, or night time, what would be the point of plugging them in. How would these cars capitalize on being parked in the sun if it weren't for charging the included lithium batteries. How on earth do you expect to make it through a tunnel if these solar EV's didn't have any lithium batteries?
I don't think it is bs! A square flat mirror has a cd of approximately 1 and the surface area is maby 0,3m^2 then you have a car "the aptera" that has a cd of 0,13 and is the size of a normall car approximately 2m^2 so. Its simple math! 0.13 x 2 = 0.26 and 1 x 0,3 = 0,3!
@@oskarrabelius7384 okay, so firstly the surface of a side-view mirror that's facing the air current isn't flat, but curved, the flat side is only in the direction of travel if you're driving backwards and then, air resistance is pretty negligible. Meaning that the actual cw value is not 1 like for a flat surface, but between 1 and 0.45, the value for the convex side of a hemisphere. And secondly, have you ever seen a side-view mirror on a car...? 0.3m² is literally a rectangle with one side being 30cm long and the other being 1m long. What kind of dumbo-mirror kind of car do you drive? A normal side-view mirror on the average car is about 25cm long and at most 20cm high, estimated _very_ generously. That's a cross-sectional area of 0.05m². So even if you take _both_ mirrors, you get a value of 0.045-0.1 which is still smaller than the 0.26 you quoted. And lastly, the aptera is 2.24m wide and 1.45m high. Even if we assumed a tapered form that subtracts about one fourth of the cross-sectional area, that's still 2.463m², giving it a value of 0.32, not 0.26.
Sono Motors Sion is another solar battery electric car targeting a production run. Theirs looks more like a compact SUV. Super cool video - thanks for posting!
The solo is 1 seat and 100 mile range. No solo i have seen. Theur factiry is in Mesa AZ near me. The aptera is 2 seats 400, 600 or 1,000 mile range on a charge with 700 watts of solar.
@@solarstacks I have never heard of a "solo" solar battery electric vehicle. I was referring to the Sono Motors Sion. It is a 5 seat vehicle produced in Germany.
Won't be long before you can get enough charge at the store whilst you shop, or gym whilst you are getting fit, or cinema whilst you enjoy a film, or restaurant whilst you eat, or... etc. etc. Most people drive less than 30 miles a day, so could get by with a weekly charge...
They can be removed within ~30 seconds by flipping a lever on the backside of the cover. Many cars of the 50's and 60's had them. Not too big of an issue to change tires. I know because I've done it myself.
Nice to see the solar panel efficiency going up, but how would they compensate for the reliability? The solar panels degrade with time and in few years, all the cells would have to be changed !
Now we are thinking in the correct direction. Start with power available and base the whole concept around that. I have said for years we can create solar battery hybrid vehicles but the design has to be radically redesigned from the top (Sun) down! ☀️
These vehicles would work extremely well in the equatorial regions where sun's shining for almost entire year and are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions.
@@kirkc9643 ...and it has battery with charging capabilities which can be used to power them during night... and besides those countries are not much of night metropolitans
Uh, no. Solar panels work even better in the cold. (Just not so well in the dark or covered with snow.) It's the batteries that need to be kept above freezing. So they are heated and insulated from the cold. Did you know that 80% of the new cars sold in Norway are EVs? I've heard it gets pretty cold there.
@@rickseiden1 Ah! Then simply brushing the car off after it snows will be all that is needed. Other options would be covering the car with a tarp or garaging it overnight if you can and when a storm is expected. I've read that solar panels work fine through thin coatings of snow.
@@fotoguru222 Here's what I'm thinking. I get home from work, and park in the driveway. It's the dead of winter, so by the time I get home, there's not light, and the car can't charge. Overnight it starts snowing. I go out in the morning and brush off the car, then drive to work. I park in the open at work so the car can charge, but it's still snowing, and my car is quickly covered in snow. It can't charge. I come out to go home, brush off the car, and then head home. I park in the driveway again, and it's too dark for it to charge. Where I live this could easily happen a few days in a row. If a solar car relies on being charged every moment it's not moving, and the only time it's not moving there is snow falling (and sticking), well, my car isn't charging anymore, and I can't get to work. But, if the solar panels are heated, even to just 35F/2C, which would be enough to melt any snow, my car can charge while I'm at work. It does mean that some of the power that is going to charge it is being used to heat it so it can charge, but that's the best that can happen. In the summer, or in places like the Southern part of the US, this wouldn't be a problem.
@@rickseiden1 Thanks for sharing your thinking. I'm not sure what energy it would take to keep the top of the car from freezing in a snow storm. Do you? I know places, downtown businesses mostly, have heated sidewalks to keep them from freezing, but I have no idea how much energy they consume. My instinct is that they consume a lot -- enough to keep a building's steam boiler busy -- a lot more than is reasonable to come from a battery all day or all night, because I know that even an ICE car cannot keep the the windshieeld clear in a blizzard, even with all the waste heat coming from the engine directed to the windshield. So what's the solution? Forget trying to keep the outside of the car warm for over 12 hours overnight. Plug the car in and/or park it inside. My understanding is that in really cold places like yours, nearly every parking space comes with an outlet meant for block heaters to keep the engine oil from turning to molasses. Use it to charge your EV and keep thebattery warm, if you can't garage it. Does that work for you?
I think the benefit of a solar EV is not to provide a massively greener type of car, but to make daily charging convenient for people who can't install a charger at home.
Definitely, those who live where plugging in is inconvenient or impossible will definitely make up some of these vehicles TAM. Some off grid folks will love it too.
Here in the northeast where keeping your vehicle from freezing over half the year by parking in your heated garage defeats the purpose of solar if you're not always leaving it outside.
I've already had my sights on an Aptera car for some time now. Assuming they don't fold, I'm willing to buy one. I'd prefer the 4-wheeled version that they're talking about, and I'd love an extra seat for my little one in the back.
Looking through the comments, Seeker has very bad informational value and its purely a pitch for the company. the worse thing is we didnt hear a single thing about range, how much it can charge in a day or per hour, nothing about battery capacity, volume production or even cost. They just showed the stupid graph chart like we are 5 and the big deal about the drag coefficient. I dont know if you are aware but, the less mass a vehicle has, the worse its safety is. There is a very logical explanation why Teslas are twice as heavy, low center of gravity, great steering and most important SAFETY! you lost me as a viewer seeker im sorry...
The video covers range, with Aptera having 12,000 mi/year and LightYear 10,000 mi/year. The video also covered weight, the use of lighter composite materials, and mentioned that the lighter the car, the less energy it takes to move the vehicle.
Yes. The Sono Motors Sion, made in Germany, is a great example of this. They advertise their car being able to charge about 15 miles per day in a place like California, but show that the cars can currently add about 5 miles of range per day in cloud Germany. This sounds like an insignificant amount but it can add up over time. In the US, the average round trip commute is 30 miles, so 5 miles would represent ~15% of the commute, but I imagine commutes are much shorter in the UK so it could easily be 30-50% of a commute. Fuel/Electricity bill cut in half, plus the added bonus of peace of mind that the car will always keep charging even if the grid goes down. The Sion is also capable of supplying power to power electrical devices like kettles and refrigerators, so if a home ever lost power, the car could serve as a backup battery on wheels. The UA-cam channel, Fully Charged, based in the UK, did a fantastic special with the Sono team and got to try out many of the features of the prototype. The cars can also be plugged into a wall charger just like any other EV. The Sion is also projected to cost around $30,000 and have a battery-only range of about 150 miles, so still quite practical even without the solar cells.
It's cool to see concepts like this come to life and I think all the cars shown were masterfully executed. But, I don't see a need for a car directly powered by solar panels. You can achieve the same goal of having cars run 100% on solar energy by having them indirectly connect to solar panels. This is what companies like Tesla are aiming to do. Imagine your house has 100's of square feet of solar panels and you plug your car directly into the energy produced by those panels. This still makes the car 100% powered by solar energy.
Not everyone has a driveway or dedicated parking spot to charge in. The full panels give you up to 11 000 miles a year for maybe 20 or 30 years for $900... That cost of driving is ... ... pretty hard to beat!
@@peterchandler8505 That's true some people may not have a parking spot to charge in. But, what percent of people buying a car have that issue? Probably less than 1%. Also, a house with solar panels could supply you with 100,000 miles a year if there's enough square footage.
Another option would be to have a roof mounted unit that would deploy a tracking solar array when the car is parked that would charge the battery during the work day. If the array is the size of 8 X 20 foot parking space and the cells 30% efficient; you'd get something over 3 KW. On a sunny day you might get more than 25 KW hrs. while you worked. The excess could power your home.
@@fotoguru222 Love the Aptera, but for those who have a Model Y or such; it seems a deployable array might be useful. Parking lots could become solar power plants. Really cool that you considered the deployable solution.
@@stevemickler452 What stymied me was how to make a quickly deployable array that was stong enough to survive a breezy day without being so bulky and heavy as to be impractical or cost prohibitive. Learned a lot about practical mechanics in the process anyway.
@@fotoguru222 Solar canopies almost double the cost per KWhr here in the UK. They are around, and great because you can get a lot of solar PV into a space that would otherwise just be cooking cars, & not to forget cooler cars at the end of the day.. Just the extra cost is the problem. They tend to be fixed panels in preference to sun tracking though
Okay but... What's the max range without charge, 0-60mph, top speed, crash test ratings, carrying capacity, estimated cost for consumers, charge time via solar, max battery capacity, etc.? Wouldn't a solar-car ALSO run on batteries charged by sunlight?! This invalidates the arguments that they would be "better" for the environment. If there were enough charging stations for regular EV vehicles, a solar-car will be a pathetic option for any consumer. Lastly, to answer his question on "Why do cars all look like bricks?", this is because they NEED to conform to safety regulations to protect the end-consumer. Just because you can prototype a vehicle, doesn't mean you are anywhere close to making a product that is safe or viable for commercial or normal consumers. This vehicle brings nothing new to the table that couldn't already be added to existing EV vehicles.
It's really unbelievable how far they have come with solar tech..I hope we get to see these kind of solar based cars taking over the whole world at some point but only one thing is a big minus with these cars which is Winter days...when there's not much sun light outside if any at all or places (like in Europe) where they barely have any sunlight as well.
We had the sun here today, only about 40 miles from Manchester UK ;) Aptera does a range calculator where you can get a rough idea of how much extra range the solar PV will give you... About 20 miles a day round here. Though I guess if we had a car that could draw power from falling rain, it would do quiet well here sometimes...
@@peterchandler8505 I see, well, maybe they need to make an hybrid car that has a solar/electric modes so people would be able to use their cars well in the Winter or in cold places where people don't have much sunlight.
As a recent EV owner I'd like to know how slapping solar cells on a car is a better alternative to simply generating more electricity on the grid from renewable resources? I assume these Solar cars require some battery storage, so that's not eliminated with these vehicles, and the PV cells also come with a measurable impact due to production. Couldn't a large more efficient solar farm, which don't have same the constraints of fitting on a car or changing direction actively away from direct sunlight, produce more consistent electricity to charge EVs?
The batteries can be recycled, there are already businesses recycling end of life electric car batteries. Not everyone has a driveway or dedicated parking spot to charge in. The full panels give you up to 11 000 miles a year for maybe 20 or 30 years for $900... That cost of driving is ... ... pretty hard to beat!
Less ‘forget EVs’ and more ‘think EVs but batteries + solar panels + weight deduction and air flow efficiency’ would be great. Combining batteries and solar panels together would likely be great for having a smaller lighter battery with longer range. Plus getting these on trucks would probably be a big deal considering they want to go the distance while having as light a battery as possible.
What they don't mention in this video is the fact that the solar irradiance is about 1W/m^2 so even if you covered the whole surface of the car with perfect 100% efficient solar panels, you only get couple Watts from the sun, not enough to drive a proper car..
The average solar energy irradencence for the earth for a 24 hour day is 160w/m^2 but lets quit all the places that roughtly recive light and the night since you dont charge a solar car 24 hours since there is more resistance for the panels to absorve the light. Lest put the top 8 hours of solar energy of one day at a lattitude of 40° on summer whitch is 600W/m^2 (rought estimate since the top at sea level is 1000W/m^2) with at least a 20% of convertion from the panels and 3m/s of the aptera will come with 360W/hr for 8 hr will be 2.88KW of energy in one day so is pretty much for a trip of 15 Km in a regular car, in an aptera could be up to 40 Km, more that what a lot of people commute.
That's great, but how safe is it to drive, merge lanes, and back up in the Lightyear One without a rear window? How much trunk space does Actara have? Do you have to wash them often in order to maintain solar panel efficiency? I'm glad they're making significant strides in solar vehicular technology, but I feel like there are still some technical hurdles before any of them will be ready for the road.
@seeker look into this, i have known about this and i have seen the experiment that they did in california with the first solar car. The next part is to 3-D print wind turbines for better energy generation. The vehicle would be able to generate approximately 30% of the energy of the wind and if you put it along specific points on a car that the cars body will funnel the air to and create turbulence. This would be a wonderful asset for any vehicle enthusiast that wants to save the environment. There is more to this but this post is long enough
3-D print wind turbines and put them in the wheel well of the vehicle. You will be able to almost have a perpetual machine. I have not copyrighted this as i want everyone to utilize these technology's, check to see if anyone did copyright them but please utilize these technology's
@@johnohm8067 That won't work for 2 reasons: 1. The wheels already have hub motors and no free space 2. It is impossible to reclaim more energy through the turbines than the drag that they'd produce; they'd end up losing you energy and efficiency due to energy transfer losses
@@LeesChannel i indicated almost as an arbitrary word that is typically used for something that is close to something else but is not that something else. I think that you may have misunderstood the phrasing or use of almost to indicate that it would be close to perpetual motion but not perpetual motion for very specific reasons. 2nd law of thermodynamics is a real thing and i understand thermodynamics but even so why not utilize various technologies to get as close as possible to a completely efficient machine. From a consumer standpoint this would be ideal as you would have such little loss that the vehicle would require less to fill it up and go long distances
I came across one of the two aptera prototypes in San Diego the other day. It was broken down and I had to help them move it off of the main Street lol. Still an exciting project nonetheless
@@justin_time it definitely looked cool, however I smacked my head when I was getting into it. I'm 6'3 and it's definitely not designed for someone of my height. You can check out the photos of it on my Twitter @PsychelectricM
@@TrevFromTheBlock Ouch! I hope that's just a problem with the prototype because quite a few people are over 6'3". Thanks for sharing! I'll check it out!
Would you drive a car that runs on sunshine? Let us know in the comments below.
I don't really need one since I can plug in at home, but if I lived somewhere without a driveway it could be a game changer.
What about Night range, and winter range in higher latitudes?
Sounds like it’ll have geographic limits where it’ll won’t be crippled.
I'm looking for a car with great range. Nothing matches an Aptera with it's 600 or more mile range. The fact that it recharges itself is pure gravy, but useful for trips to the wilds.
@@fotoguru222
Is that winter in Wisconsin?
@@larryscott3982 The usual wild places for me are the Adirondacks in NY and the 10,000 Lakes region of Ontario north of Barrie. Want to explore other places as well.
Not a word about battery capacity, speed, safety... This looked like a commercial.
Yes it did. I find it sad to see more and more of Seekers’ content is going in that direction.
It is as if someone else has taken initiative of seeker.
and there's no way you could just buy this car and expect not to pay for the power u use, probably gonna pay the car company for the power you generate or something, there's always a catch with these, this really just feels like a glorified ad.
Aptera = 300 to 1000 miles depending upon the trim level selected.
Lightyear One I believe is expected to be in the 200-400 miles range.
Sono Motors Sion I believe is expected to have a range of 110-150 miles.
It's all on their websites.
And here comes the solar car agent to explain: ☝️
What do you mean "forget EVs?" This is literally an EV with solar panels
@Fed Rai | I don’t think the !whole! thing is bullcrap … but yes, a few grains of salt need to be added.
(and by few, I mean many many more than they let on)
@Fed Rai I think EngineeringExplained debunked solar powered cars because the can't produce enough energy over the course of a year.
Edit: OK his conclusion was about 40 miles a day so it can work.
The conventional used regular electricity, this uses electricity that generated from solar energy
@@james10o1 His conclusion in that video talked about how solar powered cars like Aptera (given their stated specs) are feasible/possible.
@@james10o1 I feel like he's being disingenuous. It's entirely about use case.
Many people - like me - don't drive more than like 25miles/day at most, for 5 days a week. You could easily power that car indefinitely on solar panels alone.
you know they're selling something when then use words like "revolutionize" and "forget EVs"
Wouldn't a solar powered car still be an ev(electric vehicle)
Yup
Yeah an SP-EV
Basically, just with solar panels glued on them
SEV
@@kallah4999 Aptera's are actually clipped and bolted on so that they are easily replaceable if damaged.
Forget EVs , EVs are here but now they have solar roofs!
It's EVs, not "EV's".
@@krazzysu Thank you for *youre* service
They worded it bad, but solar vehicles have to have batteries for reliability. But they can be way smaller.
SEVs 😝
Yep same as the Solar roadway!!!
Misleading title. Aptera is a battery charged car first and the solar is a backup
Nope. If you just drive 35miles per day there is no need to ever plug in.
“Forget EVs” Proceeds to show an EV.
it's called a comment generator
It shows an EV but a very efficient vehicle and with solar for energy while driving and for charging while parked.
Adding usable solar to an EV makes it an SEV I would suppose. Like adding two wheels to a motorcycle makes it a car, similar but not the same. Either way, its just an attention getting title to get people to watch the video obviously, like millions of other videos do.
You missed the most important question. When will these cars be commercially available? Otherwise, this video is just a puff piece on vapourware
They'll be ready just in time for nuclear winter.
The lightyear one should I believe start manufacturing in 2022: lightyear.one/progress
Another very important question is range without sunlight and pricing
Aptera says they are starting production at the end of this year. Probably a bit optimistic considering they just came out with the beta version. They have a long waiting list, so it will probably a couple of years before they are easily available.
even if they are sold super expensive to only rich people, the tech wont trickle down to the masses in at least the next 10-15 years
This is cool, but why isn't it just better to have solar on your house and charge the car whit that electricity? Your car would be safer, and it would benefit the grind your on. ( if your car is full that solar panel is doing nothing)
Why not do both?
diversity
@@BrotherAlpha It's way more expensive on a car than on a house, also extra weight for the car which is counterproductive and of course affects the design of it.
It's better to focus on a lightweight and super efficient electric vehicle instead, something which is quite the opposite of what the automotive industry is doing, by creating massive electric SUVs which are completely stupid carbon footprint wise.
@Donny Tee "Solar on the house is useless in overcast sky or rain." No they are not. They run at between 10% to 25% and while that's not ideal it is hardly useless.
@@amigodesigns "It's way more expensive on a car than on a house, also extra weight for the car which is counterproductive..."
I think advances in solar panels are making these arguments less compelling. The costs and sizes are going down so much that the reduced battery size needed makes solar powered cars viable.
At least that's how I see it. Maybe I'm wrong here. Not my area of expertise.
This is exactly what we needed, a car with both solar panels to generate electric power and lithium batteries to store electric energy while also being able to plug to the grid and get energy from the grid whenever necessary.
Lithium batteries cannot be avoided. Solar or Electric Vehicles both require some sort of a power bank
The design of the aptera is absolutely fantastic
You are a nerd
Seeker has really gone downhill with the clickbait titles. Neither of these companies are anywhere near production ready. No discussion whatsoever on issues or realities to explain why solar powered cars aren't "here" yet. This is more like a 10 minute infomercial/pitch. Should have slapped the "contains advertising" label.
I totally agree.. this is nothing more than vaporware
I mean, there is a reason Teslas aren't covered with solar panels.
Engineering Explained recently did a video showing just how limited in usefulness a solar powered car would be. It's not pretty.
Check out the Sono Sion. Seeker completely overlooked them and they're much closer to production.
These two companies and Sono Motors have a target release date for their products of about 1-2 years. They aren't building anything fundamentally new, just putting together pieces in a way that hasn't been done before, so it isn't outlandish to expect to see these companies reach small-scale production in 1-2 years. Aptera plans to sell their Sol SBEV for between $30,000-$50,000, Sono Motors Sion for ~$35,000, and the Lightyear One is projected to cost ~$150,000.
I'm an engineer and I love technology, but the solution for this problem is quite simple and do not require any thing new: Compact cities and Bikes.
What would be the carbon footprint of tearing down our cities and rebuilding them as compact?
Bikes require fuel in the form of food for the bicyclist. What the carbon footprint of that food? If you’re a vegan it’s 5x less than a gas car. If you’re a carnivore it’s worse than driving a diesel car. These solar EVs would be better than riding a bike.
@@juliahello6673 Nice breakdown! I haven't seen that before...Thank you!
@@jayhuiting5748 being strictly vegan or carnivore is inferior to being omnivorous
“Forget EV’s, even though that’s exactly what this video is about, forget them”
Who needs electricity when you have solar pane- oh wait...
I did see an American protestor with a sign claiming he did not use oil because he uses the bus... ...
He doesn't know why cars are bricks?
Take your car to the Crash Test track and get back to me...
Strength isn't necessarily related to weight.
@@Xiph1980 he's talking about the shape not weight, you got bricks in between your ears?
@@Xiph1980 yes that's true but the problem is with weight reduction the crash can actually be worse for the passenger even if the car is perfectly fine. You have to take momentum to account, in a head on collision the heavier car is the safer option (if the cars are equally as strong) this is partially why you don't normally see seat belts on a bus. So when they keep bragging about weight savings they are forgetting the basics of a collision MOMENTUM. It is also worth noting that mass doesn't have anything to with drag if the cars have identical body shapes.
The shape of the car is also of concern, "He doesn't know why they are bricks" well perhaps that because its a popular looking shape? Sure the other car has less than half the drag of a normal "brick" car but it looks rediculous. Even with all it's benefits you're going to struggle to sell that car to the public simply with how rediculous it looks, there's a reason other "radical design shape changes" haven't caught on.
Solar cars are still EVs
Are Solar Powered Cars not EV's (electric vehicle)?
Yeah.... they are still electronic vehicles.
SEV
They are. The title is stupid.
Thanks a lot guys for featuring the potential of the solar car concept and our upcoming 1st vehicle: Lightyear One!
Please make sure your car isn't engineered for obsolescence and death by repair cost & complexity like Tesla !
And solar powered cars are not... EV? It's like they say "hydrogen cars vs. EVs"... News: IT'S ALL EV
Wow people are clutching their pearls so hard on this topic. Yes there are issues but these are really exciting potentially revolutionary concepts.
I think many are just seeing this for the first time. A little more exposure and they will be wondering why their next new vehicle isn't doing as well as these two.
Having a Dutch technician state the limitations and downsides is the best sales pitch ever, to me.
Forget EVs let's talk about EVs
That's not a car. That's an aerodynamic motorcycle.
An alternative already exists, its called trains
Most important question remained unasked and unanswered: how big is the battery inside of it?
Presumably it has one so that it doesn't grind to a halt at a first cloud that passes over, but how far can it travel when it's cloudy or at night? And what's the top speed? If it can or can't hit highway speeds would be an extremely important consideration to buyers.
Well it uses less than 100wh per mile and they sell it with range from 250miles to 1000 miles. Now just multiply the range with wh.
I think someone said it was 62wh per mile. Sorry my memory is kinda bad :D
Aptera has different size batteries depending on the range. But pretty much the same as a regular EV, slightly less.
@@juliahello6673 wow, that sounds way better than I expected.
So you dissed the lithium-ion battery for electric vehicles, at the beginning of the vid and did I miss you pointing out which battery the Aptera uses? Isn't it a lithium-ion battery?
Steve FAM BRO
That is the most friendliest sounding family name I've ever heard
These cars will still need batteries (likely lithium ion) so listing that as a downside to classic EVs is unreasonable.
The key is that they need LESS lithium-ion batteries to travel the same distance. Far less. Rather than people needing large battery packs that they can "fill up" once every 1-2 weeks like current ICE cars, they can have very small "tanks" [battery packs] because the solar cells constantly refill or recharge the batteries. Having smaller battery packs in these cars is also how they are keeping costs low and efficiencies high [less weight].
@@justin_time nope look at the available batteries on aptera web sight. Quick before they take preorders and disappear.....again.
Thunderf00t wants to know your location.
Who is Thunderf00t ?
@@joshua3381 basically debunks everything
Now I've one more reason to not go for work when it's raining outside.
The Aptera really looks futuristic. The other looks more practical tho. I always wondered why solar cells aren't on EVs like tesla already
Safety. Weight. Utility. Power. Range.
The area of the vehicle for solar panels and the amount of power they can generate is not enough for any normal sized vehicles. Maybe one day in the future as I'm not against the idea. Tesla has a patent for using solar panels on the cover for the bed of the Cybertruck, but it won't add more than like 15 miles range per day or something.
It's fun to see people working on the technology though. Considering we'll have ICE vehicles on the road until like 2050 or so the types of vehicles that will push them out have to be similar for now. Just from a safety perspective. No way the solar car here holds up in a crash test :/
@@Stinsvarning Yeah but don't let facts get in the way of clickbait
@@kirkc9643 yeah.. the aptera has been shown years ago and still hasnt got to the consumer.. its been so long i thought they had given up
@@jono6379 well they had. Aptera went out of business in 2011 and came back in 2019.
The efficiency of the car, or power consumption is the main reason. Aptera uses a third or a quarter of the power other EVs use (100Wh per mile vs 240Wh+ per mile for other EVs), means that the small amount of power the solar powers generate adds a far more significant range than less efficient EVs
"Dad can you come and pick me up?"
"Sure" *looks outside* "No wait, it's raining. Take a taxi"
I understand that you are not serious, but for those who don't. Clouds do not stop solar energy from reaching the ground
@@Canal10000 Sure they do. Not all of it of course, but if its raining there would be very little power available to charge an electric car.
@@paulwary Maybe I should have written "completely stop" instead. My point was that you will still get some charge even though it is a cloudy day. Panels are often around 50-70% less effective with heavy clouds and 80-90% less effective with heavy rain. So it really depends on how far you want to drive, but the cars will still get charged when you are at work
Guys relax. I'm pro solar(own solar panels!) it's a joke. But I do think that solor panels on cars should be viewed as a "plus" not an "only" (AKA EV + solar.)
@@lucth16 which is why these cars have batteries, Sono 150 miles, Lightyear 450 miles, Aptera 400-1000 mile options
@3:20, What are you saying. These solar electric vehicles do have lithium batteries in them. Otherwise, not only what would happen when you enter a shadow, or night time, what would be the point of plugging them in. How would these cars capitalize on being parked in the sun if it weren't for charging the included lithium batteries. How on earth do you expect to make it through a tunnel if these solar EV's didn't have any lithium batteries?
You forgot the Sono Sion! It's a really cool city car design covered in PVs.
give it a Mclaren, ‘supercar’ etc. type look and people will go wild, I’d buy one
Somewhere between this and a 4-door sedan like the model S plaid, that can lap a 12 cylinder super-car is the perfect EV.
If you own one of these "saving for a rainy day" would be a literal description
As cool as this is, too many people think this also solves the traffic problem...but we need electric busses for that too
No one rides the bus because of time inconvenience , because of mentally unstable homeless and because of poverty stigma
@@red5587 so it's an American problem? Here in Europe it works absolutely fine
Bro there’s been electric buses for years it’s just the government won’t pay for them because of the range issues . Google it
There are some Chinese cities with more electric buses than whole countries in other parts of the world!
@@topcat8820 i didn't say there are no electric busses, haven't i?🤔😁
That "same drag as a side mirror" statement seems bs
Since air resistance scales with the cross-sectional area of the object... Yeah, sounds like a heavy load of bullshit...
Same drag coefficient, not drag itself.
I don't think it is bs! A square flat mirror has a cd of approximately 1 and the surface area is maby 0,3m^2 then you have a car "the aptera" that has a cd of 0,13 and is the size of a normall car approximately 2m^2 so. Its simple math! 0.13 x 2 = 0.26 and 1 x 0,3 = 0,3!
@@oskarrabelius7384 okay, so firstly the surface of a side-view mirror that's facing the air current isn't flat, but curved, the flat side is only in the direction of travel if you're driving backwards and then, air resistance is pretty negligible. Meaning that the actual cw value is not 1 like for a flat surface, but between 1 and 0.45, the value for the convex side of a hemisphere.
And secondly, have you ever seen a side-view mirror on a car...?
0.3m² is literally a rectangle with one side being 30cm long and the other being 1m long. What kind of dumbo-mirror kind of car do you drive?
A normal side-view mirror on the average car is about 25cm long and at most 20cm high, estimated _very_ generously. That's a cross-sectional area of 0.05m². So even if you take _both_ mirrors, you get a value of 0.045-0.1 which is still smaller than the 0.26 you quoted.
And lastly, the aptera is 2.24m wide and 1.45m high. Even if we assumed a tapered form that subtracts about one fourth of the cross-sectional area, that's still 2.463m², giving it a value of 0.32, not 0.26.
It would be stupid for them to mention it (several times in different interviews) if it wasn't true.
The Lightyear One looks simply beautiful, hope they make it! 🍀
I freakin' love this.
From 8:10 an optical illusion of a tree mounted on top of the moving car! Lol
lol, yeah, I noticed that too.
Sono Motors Sion is another solar battery electric car targeting a production run. Theirs looks more like a compact SUV. Super cool video - thanks for posting!
The solo is 1 seat and 100 mile range. No solo i have seen. Theur factiry is in Mesa AZ near me.
The aptera is 2 seats 400, 600 or 1,000 mile range on a charge with 700 watts of solar.
@@solarstacks I have never heard of a "solo" solar battery electric vehicle. I was referring to the Sono Motors Sion. It is a 5 seat vehicle produced in Germany.
@@justin_time or Saab factory in Sweden?
Hybrid vehicle that can have both solar and electric arrangement. Thought to think. Keep innovating. All the best.
I live in an apartment so I can't charge an EV. This would be great.
Won't be long before you can get enough charge at the store whilst you shop, or gym whilst you are getting fit, or cinema whilst you enjoy a film, or restaurant whilst you eat, or... etc. etc. Most people drive less than 30 miles a day, so could get by with a weekly charge...
I live in Canada. You'd have to get rid of those rear wheel half covers whatever that is so you can change winter tires.
They can be removed within ~30 seconds by flipping a lever on the backside of the cover. Many cars of the 50's and 60's had them. Not too big of an issue to change tires. I know because I've done it myself.
Nice to see the solar panel efficiency going up, but how would they compensate for the reliability? The solar panels degrade with time and in few years, all the cells would have to be changed !
Aptera claims better than 10 year life for the panels.
6:57 Spotted our RED E! ;)
Now we are thinking in the correct direction. Start with power available and base the whole concept around that. I have said for years we can create solar battery hybrid vehicles but the design has to be radically redesigned from the top (Sun) down! ☀️
Forget vehicles, cars are here.
These vehicles would work extremely well in the equatorial regions where sun's shining for almost entire year and are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions.
...and your 'car' weighed a tenth that of a real car and you only wanted to drive it during the day.
@@kirkc9643 ...and it has battery with charging capabilities which can be used to power them during night... and besides those countries are not much of night metropolitans
@@fugslayernominee1397 ye you'd get shanked, crashed or robbed.
@@kirkc9643 why's it being light a problem?
@@crackedemerald4930 Being too light is a safety hazard in a crash.
The rate at which technology advances is just wild!
Where I live, the solar panels would need to be heated, or they'd be useless in the winter.
Uh, no. Solar panels work even better in the cold. (Just not so well in the dark or covered with snow.) It's the batteries that need to be kept above freezing. So they are heated and insulated from the cold. Did you know that 80% of the new cars sold in Norway are EVs? I've heard it gets pretty cold there.
@@fotoguru222 the snow was what I was thinking about. We get a lot of it.
@@rickseiden1 Ah! Then simply brushing the car off after it snows will be all that is needed. Other options would be covering the car with a tarp or garaging it overnight if you can and when a storm is expected. I've read that solar panels work fine through thin coatings of snow.
@@fotoguru222 Here's what I'm thinking. I get home from work, and park in the driveway. It's the dead of winter, so by the time I get home, there's not light, and the car can't charge. Overnight it starts snowing. I go out in the morning and brush off the car, then drive to work. I park in the open at work so the car can charge, but it's still snowing, and my car is quickly covered in snow. It can't charge. I come out to go home, brush off the car, and then head home. I park in the driveway again, and it's too dark for it to charge. Where I live this could easily happen a few days in a row. If a solar car relies on being charged every moment it's not moving, and the only time it's not moving there is snow falling (and sticking), well, my car isn't charging anymore, and I can't get to work. But, if the solar panels are heated, even to just 35F/2C, which would be enough to melt any snow, my car can charge while I'm at work. It does mean that some of the power that is going to charge it is being used to heat it so it can charge, but that's the best that can happen.
In the summer, or in places like the Southern part of the US, this wouldn't be a problem.
@@rickseiden1 Thanks for sharing your thinking.
I'm not sure what energy it would take to keep the top of the car from freezing in a snow storm. Do you? I know places, downtown businesses mostly, have heated sidewalks to keep them from freezing, but I have no idea how much energy they consume. My instinct is that they consume a lot -- enough to keep a building's steam boiler busy -- a lot more than is reasonable to come from a battery all day or all night, because I know that even an ICE car cannot keep the the windshieeld clear in a blizzard, even with all the waste heat coming from the engine directed to the windshield.
So what's the solution? Forget trying to keep the outside of the car warm for over 12 hours overnight. Plug the car in and/or park it inside. My understanding is that in really cold places like yours, nearly every parking space comes with an outlet meant for block heaters to keep the engine oil from turning to molasses. Use it to charge your EV and keep thebattery warm, if you can't garage it.
Does that work for you?
Looks like something a strong wind gust could tip over. How fast can they go? And does it wanna rise when goin top speed?
I think the benefit of a solar EV is not to provide a massively greener type of car, but to make daily charging convenient for people who can't install a charger at home.
Definitely, those who live where plugging in is inconvenient or impossible will definitely make up some of these vehicles TAM. Some off grid folks will love it too.
Bring on the solar rEVolution!
Thank you for information about time really green energy
Title implies the solar energy isn't converted into electricity. 🤔.... steam powered?
I don’t understand all the complaints. This is a tech overview, not a car review.
At best, this video demonstrates a serious lack of understanding of the subject matter.
@@kirkc9643 In what way? Seems like they covered the basics of the idea pretty well.
@@Fredjikrang the title of the video covers the lack of understanding quite well.
Here in the northeast where keeping your vehicle from freezing over half the year by parking in your heated garage defeats the purpose of solar if you're not always leaving it outside.
Do they have air conditioning? If not... that's a hard pass.
Yep, A/C and heat, too, for those cold winter days.
Works great on overcast and rainy days. But performs brilliantly during snow storms.
rain & snow would have such an effect on the battery... maybe a little less than 1000 mile range for the top model...
Forget your carbon fiber, just deck the whole car in solar panels
For where i live this would be perfect. I live in a super tiny island named Gozo part of Malta. We have sun all year round.
So I live on the UK. It's cloudy 60% of the time apart from the summer. They will only work in hot countries unfortunately 😐
It rains 30% of the time in London compared to 20% of the time in San Francisco, so it is not that much of a difference.
@@BrotherAlpha who said rain?
They have charing fecility though.
Light vehicles are deathtraps while driving in the snow.
Just let me know when I can actually buy one
2022?
You can pre-order
@@LeesChannel but is there a guarantee they will ever produce them
I've already had my sights on an Aptera car for some time now. Assuming they don't fold, I'm willing to buy one. I'd prefer the 4-wheeled version that they're talking about, and I'd love an extra seat for my little one in the back.
Looking through the comments, Seeker has very bad informational value and its purely a pitch for the company. the worse thing is we didnt hear a single thing about range, how much it can charge in a day or per hour, nothing about battery capacity, volume production or even cost. They just showed the stupid graph chart like we are 5 and the big deal about the drag coefficient. I dont know if you are aware but, the less mass a vehicle has, the worse its safety is. There is a very logical explanation why Teslas are twice as heavy, low center of gravity, great steering and most important SAFETY! you lost me as a viewer seeker im sorry...
The video covers range, with Aptera having 12,000 mi/year and LightYear 10,000 mi/year. The video also covered weight, the use of lighter composite materials, and mentioned that the lighter the car, the less energy it takes to move the vehicle.
I didn't catch his name, but the smiley guy with the accent should be in the commercials. You can't help but like him!
Wow. So many negative people here! It makes me really sad. Yeah, they goofed up with the slogan forget EVs whatever. I think it's a great car.
It’s forever cloudy in the UK, can it still charge if there’s no direct sun?
Probably yes, but at the expected rate of a fraction of what they advertise it !can! do.
Just like how you can still get a sunburn if it is cloudy, yes.
Yes. The Sono Motors Sion, made in Germany, is a great example of this. They advertise their car being able to charge about 15 miles per day in a place like California, but show that the cars can currently add about 5 miles of range per day in cloud Germany. This sounds like an insignificant amount but it can add up over time. In the US, the average round trip commute is 30 miles, so 5 miles would represent ~15% of the commute, but I imagine commutes are much shorter in the UK so it could easily be 30-50% of a commute. Fuel/Electricity bill cut in half, plus the added bonus of peace of mind that the car will always keep charging even if the grid goes down. The Sion is also capable of supplying power to power electrical devices like kettles and refrigerators, so if a home ever lost power, the car could serve as a backup battery on wheels. The UA-cam channel, Fully Charged, based in the UK, did a fantastic special with the Sono team and got to try out many of the features of the prototype. The cars can also be plugged into a wall charger just like any other EV. The Sion is also projected to cost around $30,000 and have a battery-only range of about 150 miles, so still quite practical even without the solar cells.
Sion is a solar EV from Sono Motors: sonomotors.com/en/sion/
It's cool to see concepts like this come to life and I think all the cars shown were masterfully executed. But, I don't see a need for a car directly powered by solar panels. You can achieve the same goal of having cars run 100% on solar energy by having them indirectly connect to solar panels. This is what companies like Tesla are aiming to do. Imagine your house has 100's of square feet of solar panels and you plug your car directly into the energy produced by those panels. This still makes the car 100% powered by solar energy.
Not everyone has a driveway or dedicated parking spot to charge in. The full panels give you up to 11 000 miles a year for maybe 20 or 30 years for $900... That cost of driving is ... ... pretty hard to beat!
@@peterchandler8505 That's true some people may not have a parking spot to charge in. But, what percent of people buying a car have that issue? Probably less than 1%. Also, a house with solar panels could supply you with 100,000 miles a year if there's enough square footage.
What a useless title.
It uses electricity, thus it is electric vehicle (EV). Hydrogen cell vehicles also are EVs.
Another option would be to have a roof mounted unit that would deploy a tracking solar array when the car is parked that would charge the battery during the work day. If the array is the size of 8 X 20 foot parking space and the cells 30% efficient; you'd get something over 3 KW. On a sunny day you might get more than 25 KW hrs. while you worked. The excess could power your home.
I tried that. Had trouble designing one that would work. Decided to let someone else work out the deetails and ordered an Aptera instead.
@@fotoguru222 Love the Aptera, but for those who have a Model Y or such; it seems a deployable array might be useful. Parking lots could become solar power plants. Really cool that you considered the deployable solution.
@@stevemickler452 What stymied me was how to make a quickly deployable array that was stong enough to survive a breezy day without being so bulky and heavy as to be impractical or cost prohibitive. Learned a lot about practical mechanics in the process anyway.
@@fotoguru222 Solar canopies almost double the cost per KWhr here in the UK. They are around, and great because you can get a lot of solar PV into a space that would otherwise just be cooking cars, & not to forget cooler cars at the end of the day.. Just the extra cost is the problem. They tend to be fixed panels in preference to sun tracking though
Okay but... What's the max range without charge, 0-60mph, top speed, crash test ratings, carrying capacity, estimated cost for consumers, charge time via solar, max battery capacity, etc.? Wouldn't a solar-car ALSO run on batteries charged by sunlight?! This invalidates the arguments that they would be "better" for the environment. If there were enough charging stations for regular EV vehicles, a solar-car will be a pathetic option for any consumer. Lastly, to answer his question on "Why do cars all look like bricks?", this is because they NEED to conform to safety regulations to protect the end-consumer. Just because you can prototype a vehicle, doesn't mean you are anywhere close to making a product that is safe or viable for commercial or normal consumers. This vehicle brings nothing new to the table that couldn't already be added to existing EV vehicles.
Love from kerala❤🌴
This is snakeoil ; love the idea; thermodynamically this won't work with the current solar panels -_-
I want that black Aptera!
It's like flying above the road...
It's really unbelievable how far they have come with solar tech..I hope we get to see these kind of solar based cars taking over the whole world at some point but only one thing is a big minus with these cars which is Winter days...when there's not much sun light outside if any at all or places (like in Europe) where they barely have any sunlight as well.
We had the sun here today, only about 40 miles from Manchester UK ;) Aptera does a range calculator where you can get a rough idea of how much extra range the solar PV will give you... About 20 miles a day round here. Though I guess if we had a car that could draw power from falling rain, it would do quiet well here sometimes...
@@peterchandler8505 I see, well, maybe they need to make an hybrid car that has a solar/electric modes so people would be able to use their cars well in the Winter or in cold places where people don't have much sunlight.
As a recent EV owner I'd like to know how slapping solar cells on a car is a better alternative to simply generating more electricity on the grid from renewable resources? I assume these Solar cars require some battery storage, so that's not eliminated with these vehicles, and the PV cells also come with a measurable impact due to production. Couldn't a large more efficient solar farm, which don't have same the constraints of fitting on a car or changing direction actively away from direct sunlight, produce more consistent electricity to charge EVs?
The batteries can be recycled, there are already businesses recycling end of life electric car batteries.
Not everyone has a driveway or dedicated parking spot to charge in. The full panels give you up to 11 000 miles a year for maybe 20 or 30 years for $900... That cost of driving is ... ... pretty hard to beat!
Imagine getting into a car crash with these lightweight vehicles
Less ‘forget EVs’ and more ‘think EVs but batteries + solar panels + weight deduction and air flow efficiency’ would be great. Combining batteries and solar panels together would likely be great for having a smaller lighter battery with longer range. Plus getting these on trucks would probably be a big deal considering they want to go the distance while having as light a battery as possible.
I'd love one of those. I drive less than 20km daily on average, and maaaybe 120km twice per week at the most.
What they don't mention in this video is the fact that the solar irradiance is about 1W/m^2 so even if you covered the whole surface of the car with perfect 100% efficient solar panels, you only get couple Watts from the sun, not enough to drive a proper car..
The average solar energy irradencence for the earth for a 24 hour day is 160w/m^2 but lets quit all the places that roughtly recive light and the night since you dont charge a solar car 24 hours since there is more resistance for the panels to absorve the light.
Lest put the top 8 hours of solar energy of one day at a lattitude of 40° on summer whitch is 600W/m^2 (rought estimate since the top at sea level is 1000W/m^2) with at least a 20% of convertion from the panels and 3m/s of the aptera will come with 360W/hr for 8 hr will be 2.88KW of energy in one day so is pretty much for a trip of 15 Km in a regular car, in an aptera could be up to 40 Km, more that what a lot of people commute.
A discussion about production cost, anticipated availability, and safety compromises would have been very useful.
all done elsewhere on youtube
5 -10years for everyone to have one , the design can be used for flying cars and spaceships?
For flying cars and spaceship we need to focus in nanotechnology but it is still in research so a long way to go
“Use the sun that works everyday” unless it rains for a week 😂
That's great, but how safe is it to drive, merge lanes, and back up in the Lightyear One without a rear window? How much trunk space does Actara have? Do you have to wash them often in order to maintain solar panel efficiency?
I'm glad they're making significant strides in solar vehicular technology, but I feel like there are still some technical hurdles before any of them will be ready for the road.
Aptera has huge trunk space. You can sleep two people back there easily.
You should add a slide out feature that's helps it charge faster while you are not driving the vehicle
I feel like a minor fender bender would be enough to total your car, never mind what would happen in a full on wreck.
The Aptera body is made of material that is 5x as strong as steel.
Nice title but pretty misleading it is an EV with a solar roof 🤦
I would love to see coverage of the effort of the automative industry to make electric bicycles and bicycle companies making electric cars!
Air-powered Jets! Water-powered Boats! Bicycles driven by nothing but flatulence! You go, Seeker.
@seeker look into this, i have known about this and i have seen the experiment that they did in california with the first solar car. The next part is to 3-D print wind turbines for better energy generation. The vehicle would be able to generate approximately 30% of the energy of the wind and if you put it along specific points on a car that the cars body will funnel the air to and create turbulence. This would be a wonderful asset for any vehicle enthusiast that wants to save the environment. There is more to this but this post is long enough
3-D print wind turbines and put them in the wheel well of the vehicle. You will be able to almost have a perpetual machine. I have not copyrighted this as i want everyone to utilize these technology's, check to see if anyone did copyright them but please utilize these technology's
@@johnohm8067 That won't work for 2 reasons:
1. The wheels already have hub motors and no free space
2. It is impossible to reclaim more energy through the turbines than the drag that they'd produce; they'd end up losing you energy and efficiency due to energy transfer losses
@@LeesChannel i indicated almost as an arbitrary word that is typically used for something that is close to something else but is not that something else. I think that you may have misunderstood the phrasing or use of almost to indicate that it would be close to perpetual motion but not perpetual motion for very specific reasons. 2nd law of thermodynamics is a real thing and i understand thermodynamics but even so why not utilize various technologies to get as close as possible to a completely efficient machine. From a consumer standpoint this would be ideal as you would have such little loss that the vehicle would require less to fill it up and go long distances
Kind of hard to drive a car that runs on sunlight when we don't even have sunlight in the first place in the UK
I came across one of the two aptera prototypes in San Diego the other day. It was broken down and I had to help them move it off of the main Street lol. Still an exciting project nonetheless
Dreams shattered. Did it at least look cool? Haha!
@@justin_time it definitely looked cool, however I smacked my head when I was getting into it. I'm 6'3 and it's definitely not designed for someone of my height. You can check out the photos of it on my Twitter @PsychelectricM
@@TrevFromTheBlock Ouch! I hope that's just a problem with the prototype because quite a few people are over 6'3". Thanks for sharing! I'll check it out!
@@justin_time hopefully lol
They just started talking about some redesigns to accommodate taller people.