We'll See wrote:
Wouldn't one of the better solutions be that the vehicles themselves were somehow solar panels? Why can't the hood, roof, upper quarter panels, etc have built in seamless solar panels so they charge all day? Think about many of the vehicles that sit baking in the sun and clouds all day while people are at work. Why couldn't the vehicle capture all that solar power.
I don't know where you park, but I park in my garage at home and a garage at work, so my car wouldn't collect much energy. And half the year, half my commute is in the dark.
But Hyundai did embed solar panels on their Hybrid car - they say it can generate "up to" 2.2 miles of energy a day if parked in the sun all day. If my commute was only 1.2 miles each way, I'd just walk. It'd be much more effective to install solar panels in the parking lot since they are in the sun all day and can be tilted into the sun for better efficiency.
And when vehicles are move? Why couldn't they incorporate some type of attractive micro wind turbines that would capture wind energy from a vehicle moving forward?
There's no free lunch. Generating energy from wind causes more drag -- every KW of energy generated from the wind is going to cause more than a KW of drag, it's a net energy loss.
I'm about to buy a new ICE vehicle but I would be very interested in buying an electric vehicle for my wife and kids. However, I think the teslas and other EVs are frickin ugly just like the Prius.
You could straddle the line and instead of going full electric, get a Hybrid or plug in hybrid. But in any case, there are at least a dozen EV's to choose from in 2021, from Tesla, Nissan, Honda, BMW, Jaguar, Porsche, Audi and more. Surely you can find one EV that you like.
