Ford Will Demo Solar-Charged Car At CES

Lucas123 writes "Ford plans to demonstrate its first solar-powered hybrid vehicle at CES next week. The Ford CMAX Solar Energi Concept car will have 1.5 square meters of solar photovoltaic cells on its roof to generate power to charge its battery. By themselves, the PV solar panels generate only 300W of power — not enough to charge the vehicle's battery in one day. Ford, however, said the car will be coupled with a carport that has solar concentrating lens atop it. The magnifying lens, called a Fresnel lens, will concentrate about 10 times the solar energy so the vehicle can be recharged in a single day — the same speed with which a standard hybrid charges using a plug." (Of course, some charge faster than others.)

Comments

Hope it doesn't melt the car!

[DaTrueDave]

Stack of pennies reduced to molten nickel by fresnal lens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcL7s9aX494

Re:Hope it doesn't melt the car!

[Velox_SwiftFox]

Zinc. Melting nickel takes a little more.

Re:Hope it doesn't melt the car!

[BasilBrush]

Concept cars are never manufactured. But this concept is more ridiculous than most.

Even if the car isn't melted, it's going to be obscenely hot to get in after a summer day's charging. Even if you can, you'll need most of the stored solar power to run air-conditioning.

Besides, cars are generally driven during the day, and parked at home at night, when the sun isn't shining.

Re:Hope it doesn't melt the car!

[ShanghaiBill]

The obvious way around this is to have a heat exchanger under the solar panels

A more obvious way around it is to have the panels feed their power into the grid, so that they can be productive whether the car is in the carport or not. Then charge the car from the grid so it can still be charged at night, on cloudy days, or when parked somewhere else.

Re:Do not stare at Fresnel with remaining eye

[icebike]

I wonder how many people are going to actually install the car-port? Who is going to fight the zoning issues, get building permits, put up with an ugly structure, and a car that moves by itself to stay in the Fresnel lens sweet spot? How many bikes, toys, and other associated back yard objects get run over?

I suppose the canopy could slide a cover over the lens when the car is absent.

But who wants to climb into an 800 degree car, and spend half the power gained running air conditioning units to cool it down?

concept cars ..

[savuporo]

There is a parallel universe of concept cars somewhere, where you can drive a microturbine powered Jaguar, solar charged Ford, Mitsubishi EVO with in-wheel motors and ATTESA-like control, there are probably a bunch of nuclear powered Ford Nucleons whizzing about as well, and everyone swaps batteries in project Better Places station like there is no tomorrow. The logo of Shell is largely replaced by Duracell in cityscapes.

Meanwhile in the real world, we can all buy a Tesla Model S for a low starting price of cool $70K or thereabouts and hope they install a fast charger somewhere close by. And of course, wait in line.

Put the panels on the canopy!

[beltsbear]

Why put them on the car? Put 10x the panels on the canopy and run a WIRE to the car to charge it. The panels could go to the grid if the car is not present. The weight savings will help the car, they will be cheaper panels for the wattage on the canopy and you can have a real amount of them. Panels on top of the car will often be wasted being covered by trees, parking garages and being at a less then optimum angle.

Re:Do not stare at Fresnel with remaining eye

[mlts]

I have a few things to add as well:

Solar PV cells don't work well when they get hot, which is why we don't see lens technology on panels unless it is a very small one.

Other than the no-plug aspect, why even bother with this? Instead, make a carport or pole barn, plop some solar panels on that, connect those to an inverter or charge controller, and plug that into the vehicle. It would gain more electricity overall that can be used for the vehicle compared to a Frenel lens series, and it won't fry the cat when he or she plops down by the car for an afternoon nap and the sunbeam shifts, or the vehicle moves back and Pirelli processes Fluffy.

Even better, since the vehicle is likely at an office, add a battery bank. Then, the vehicle can charge a night via just the stored electricity, or a combination of that and mains power.

Re:Do not stare at Fresnel with remaining eye

[icebike]

You do not drive from charger to charger.

As a leaf owner, you know this isn't true.
You know you never get into your car without a thought about where your next charger is, you avoid any trips that even put you close to your maximum range. Your mind is very much concerned with where chargers are.

And I'd bet you have access to another gas powered car which you use for anything even close to your maximum range.

Dear Ford....

[Lumpy]

Stop with the stupid.

The Car port, if covered with conventional solar panels will be a lot cheaper, easier to make, and will not require special manufacturing processes to create special lenses that follow the sun.

Less than 1/2 their price and I can make you a carport that will be double their power with conventional 200Watt panels. Plus require ZERO maintenance except for washing them once a year.

Re:Do not stare at Fresnel with remaining eye

[mythosaz]

As a leaf owner, you know this isn't true.

There's 500+ chargers in my city. I know that in nearly 7,000 miles of electric driving that I've never been more than 5 miles away from a charger. [To be precise, I was, by Google Maps, 5.1 miles away from a charger on Christmas day, when visiting my folks in their retirement community.] I drive places, and I plug in when a public charger is convenient. I took a look at where I drove before I made my decision to get one - and I found that my needs were served by the range offered plus some occasional mileage bumps by public chargers.

There's a week or two after you get your Leaf that you have range anxiety. Once you get to the end of those first few weeks without running out of electricity, you know that unless you're going somewhere strange, your 80 mile range (plus occasional bumps from public chargers) gets the job done.

In-city, 35-mph driving gets you way more than 80, but my real-world, mostly-freeway gets me about 84 -- 3.9miles per kWh.]

And I'd bet you have access to another gas powered car which you use for anything even close to your maximum range.

I drove to Albuquerque last month. I rented a car.

Look: Some people drive in places and in ways where a Leaf isn't a practical vehicle for them. They shouldn't buy one. I'm not one of those people.

Re:Fresnel lens, concentrate about 10x the energy?

[BringsApples]

No, I evidently didn't read it correctly at all, but I think it was because the whole "The Ford CMAX Solar Energi Concept car will have 1.5 square meters of solar photovoltaic cells on its roof to generate power to charge its battery." threw me off. Hell, I thought "carport" was some fancy name for the thing that'd mount atop. Derp!

If this is the case, seems like it'd make more sense to leave the carport out of the picture, keep the lens (put it in your yard somewhere?), and move the solar panels from the car to below the lens.