Ford to unveil solar hybrid concept car at CES

True, a V2G could dump its power back into the grid, but if it is connected to the grid, why does it need its own PV.

I believe this C-max has a 300watt panel. Not enough for AC, but enough for a block heater though. I think for car PVs to gain traction the benefits for all cars, not just plug ins, need to be pushed. The PV for miles in the traction pack argument is going to lose. Talk up the reduction of parasitic losses that reduce EV range and fuel economy instead.

 

Did anyone watch the video?
They lost me starting at 1:28......it says "the Cmax moves as the sun traverses from east to west"
How exactly does that work? Does it turn itself on periodically and act as an SDC?

OK, never mind.
From the link austingreen provided:
Ford’s New Solar Car Is a Supercool Fantasy - Bloomberg
The wagon’s solar cells are, on their own, insufficient to power electric driving, so the car comes with a special parking canopy that concentrates the sunlight like a magnifying glass. Throughout the day, the semi-autonomous car moves itself back and forth a few feet to get the most sunshine. It’s a plugin that doesn’t need to plug in.

Now that is really cool. Any info on whether the canopy will be portable or transportable by the Cmax itself? It does not appear so.

I don't understand your numbers.
10 square feet of roof area means each square foot receives 1000 watts @ max insolation.
Thus, @ 30% efficiency, each square foot is delivering 3o0 watts, or 3kw for the entire panel.
San Jose, CA has about 4.5 kwh of solar insolation per day (yearly average).
So, that is 13.5 kwh using (more expensive) 30% efficient cells.
8kwh should be no problem (using cheaper 18% efficient cells) for a car parked outside with no obstruction to sun, from 8am-6pm or so.

 

I was mainly using the internet meme. As mentioned in my previous post it is the bellow 500' AGL that is currently illegal for these things to fly, that some might shoot them down. For target practice I would aim for the propellers. I live in the city, and its not legal to sheet a gun excpet for self defense or in a prescribed range here, not from my prperty. My gf dad though has lots of land and lots of guns. I could see him hanging out with a bottle of tequila and a gun hunting drones. There are real issues that the FAA has to work out. Bezos does own a major newspaper and maybe he can swing, law changes for 2015. I'm not saying its impossible.

If you want delivery drones before then look to china or australia. In china they don't care about privacy or property rights. In Australia they don't have the population density, so don't care as much about safety, and have these drones flying without camera.
The Newspaper-Delivery Drone May Be A Hoax, But Civilian Drones Are Here To Stay
Australia and China are way ahead of Amazon in the commercial drone race – Quartz

Dream on unmanned arial delivery craft lovers. To me its not a very good idea, but there are worse ones out there. Please leave me out of the discussion, I'm sorry I brought it up.

 

The panels are rated at 300 watts without the canapy, but the canapy can provide 8x the light which would provide 2.4 kw peak, maybe they still are testing. Ford hasn't said whether they charge the battery when driving, that is technically more difficult, they definitely can charge with or without canapy when parked.

 

The ford panels are sun power, rated at 24% efficinecy 1.5 square meters rated at 300 watts peak. You can see the details in the video.

That's where the lens canapy comes into play, it can concentrate 8x the sunlight. The panels are made to handle this load. The tech was developed at georgia tech, and ford is working with them.

 

Ford Is Making A Concept Car With Solar Panels For A Roof

The Huffington Post | By Gregory Fink

What do Superman and the Ford C-MAX Solar Energi concept car have in common? Both receive power from the sun.
Set to be unveiled at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the C-MAX Solar Energi provides new hope for car owners looking to get off of the electric grid.

Ford's C-MAX Solar Energi uses roof-mounted solar panels to charge its electric motor, allowing the car to go up to 21 miles on solar power alone.
Like the C-MAX Energi on which the concept car is based, the C-MAX Solar Energi uses a plug-in hybrid system.
But whereas the C-MAX Energi plugs into a wall-mounted unit, the C-MAX Solar Energi plugs into a unique canopy that was designed at Georgia Tech, according to a Ford press release. The canopy includes a Fresnel lens that Ford says boosts the impact of the sun’s rays by a factor of eight. The car itself can autonomously reposition itself throughout the day to take advantage of the sun’s position as it makes its trek across the sky.
“Electrification, solar [power] and autonomous [technology] are getting to a point where we can potentially drive our vehicles everyday using solar technology alone,” Mike Tinskey, Ford’s global director of vehicle electrification and infrastructure, told The Huffington Post.
In the case of the C-MAX Solar Energi, the car is able to draw 8 kilowatt-hours of electricity when under the canopy -- enough energy to fully charge the car's battery pack.
The most noticeable change to the C-MAX Solar Energi (compared to its plug-in C-MAX Energi counterpart) is the roof-mounted solar panels, which were developed by SunPower Corp.
“The panels are extremely light. They’re not nearly as thick as they appear,” Tinskey told HuffPost, adding that he'd guess the system only adds a few additional pounds to the C-MAX Solar Energi.
Ford currently works with SunPower Corp. on its Drive Green for Life program, a plan that installs solar power systems to the homes of Ford customers so that they can charge their plug-in Ford Fusion and C-MAX Energi vehicles or Ford Focus Electric vehicles with the sun’s energy.
A SunPower Corp. representative told HuffPost that the 2.5-kilowatt system costs $10,000 to install, though Tinskey revealed that Ford would be relaunching the program with a new price point in the next few weeks.
Tinskey would not comment on the cost of a C-MAX Solar Energi, should Ford take the car from concept to reality. Instead, Tinskey said, he sees the car as more of "a conversation starter." But until customers can buy a car like the C-MAX Solar Energi, solar-powered electric cars will likely continue to remain a conversation and not a reality.

 

the question is...

if you can go 12 miles a day on a charge, is 12 miles far enough to get away from the zombies so that they can't catch up to you until the next 12 miles?

 

Depends which zombie movie you watch. Old ones or newer ones?

Old ones they move along at about 1 mph or less. New ones they seem to all be Olympic sprinting champions.