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Missed opportunity, solar tonneau and hood?

happyjohn14

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As my R1T sits in the sun all day baking this summer I can't help to think how it's a missed opportunity not to integrate, or have the option for the hood and tonneau to have solar panels on them. Is this not practical? Are they prohibitively expensive to incorporate?
I just saw a video for the Lightyear 0 and made me think of it again, if they could do something like that at scale...
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KiloV

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It is expensive. And the amount of square footage of photovoltaics that you could fit on the roof and bed cover wouldn't be enough to make much of a dent in the R1T's battery pack. Not really worth it.
 

kurtlikevonnegut

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As my R1T sits in the sun all day baking this summer I can't help to think how it's a missed opportunity not to integrate, or have the option for the hood and tonneau to have solar panels on them. Is this not practical? Are they prohibitively expensive to incorporate?
I just saw a video for the Lightyear 0 and made me think of it again, if they could do something like that at scale...
I could certainly see a solar tonneau being an aftermarket option that someone develops.
 
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happyjohn14

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It would depend on efficiencies for it not to matter that much. What the solar conversation of the panels is, and how efficient the Rivian is with using the juice that it has. Using the Lightyear as an example sounds like you rarely need to plug it in as it gets around 6kwh efficiencies and also can charge around 70kwh on a sunny day. I seem to average 3.2kwh currently driving around town.
 

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I have 27 large solar panels on the roof of my garage. 7 kW peak output. I typically get 35 to 40 kWh per day. That is about 1/3 the full capacity of the Rivian battery pack. The surface area of the Rivian roof is a fraction of the surface area of my garage roof. Just wouldn't make any difference...
 

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happyjohn14

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and if I could charge 70kwh from solar daily I'd rarely need to plug it in, its almost twice my daily commute.
 
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happyjohn14

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MountainBikeDude

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It would depend on efficiencies for it not to matter that much. What the solar conversation of the panels is, and how efficient the Rivian is with using the juice that it has. Using the Lightyear as an example sounds like you rarely need to plug it in as it gets around 6kwh efficiencies and also can charge around 70kwh on a sunny day. I seem to average 3.2kwh currently driving around town.
The photo cells on the roof of the Fisker Ocean were originally reported to give a user, based on full sun in california, up to 1000 miles of range just from the sun per year. Assuming that figure holds true, it's not really worth the additional cost in the long run and works out to less than 3 miles per day, which probably doesn't even compensate for its vampire drain.
 

CommodoreAmiga

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There have been a few vehicles with solar panels. For the most part it's only enough power to run a circulator fan. Not really anything meaningful to charge an EV. Probably not even enough to run Gear Guard outside of the most ideal circumstances.

The cost and complexity isn't worth it.
 

COdogman

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It's not really fair to compare an EV pickup truck to a $265,000 car that is built from the ground up for total efficiency. The weight and the drag differences would probably negate almost any benefit one would get from those solar panels.

I could see it being a nice addition for accessories or other uses though. Like if you were able to store power and use it to power your camp kitchen or lighting and save that other battery energy for your driving.
 

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happyjohn14

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It's not really fair to compare an EV pickup truck to a $265,000 car that is built from the ground up for total efficiency. The weight and the drag differences would probably negate almost any benefit one would get from those solar panels.

I could see it being a nice addition for accessories or other uses though. Like if you were able to store power and use it to power your camp kitchen or lighting and save that other battery energy for your driving.
Well, that quarter million price is the prototype limited model, like the Tesla Roadster for limited production. The same principles are going to be churned into the mass-produced, mass-market variant. Yes, not apples to apples, but not the only EV that is coming with PV skin.
 

COdogman

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Well, that quarter million price is the prototype limited model, like the Tesla Roadster for limited production. The same principles are going to be churned into the mass-produced, mass-market variant. Yes, not apples to apples, but not the only EV that is coming with PV skin.
Understood. But we have seen how this often plays out, haven't we? Even just looking at Rivian's struggles to create a new car company and produce quality vehicles and make a profit on it (someday?) is SO hard. I know Lightyear *plans* to offer a cheaper car, but in the process of cutting that price down, many of the things that make it so efficient will go away as well.

Don't get me wrong - I'm rooting for all these companies. And hopefully the tech from their high end car will filter down to the cheaper version they can hopefully someday sell. But I'll believe it when I see it.
 

Max

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Everything is a matter of cost/benefit. Even though R1 may get one third of the Lightyear 0 miles out of those panels, if they are cheap enough addition, I would have them on all top surfaces of my RS (no glass roof). It would be even more important then to get the phantom drain under control.
 

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I'm not watching the video but the 70kWh figure you posted is probably for the total solar energy hitting the car over the course of a day (that still feels high). Efficiencies being what they are, you'll be lucky to capture 10% of that.
 

Max

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Loved the video. It is inspiring. BUT, I believe that $30K car when I see it. The only practical affordable EV I know of is Bolt and I doubt GM made any money on it.
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