2mo ago

Mercedes-Benz says its testing solar power generating vehicle-paint that could coat vehicles, and generate 100% of their power requirements in sunny cities like Los Angeles.

evcentral.com.au Revolutionary! Mercedes-Benz solar paint could mean Australians never have to plug their EVs in again - EV Central

Revolutionary! Mercedes-Benz solar paint could mean Australians never have to plug their EVs in again

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the solar paint contains no rare earth elements or silicon. The material is made from non-toxic, readily available raw materials and is recyclable. It is also significantly cheaper to produce than conventional solar modules.
Sounds a bit too good to be true.
it is too soon to know if the solar paint will make it to production
If it is so good, why? My guess it's still in the vague concept stage and not even near actual testing with a moving car.
- It is also significantly cheaper to produce than conventional solar modules.
  If they had that they wouldn't need to put it in cars to make a lot of money.
  
  R&D is expensive.
- Article says it was tested for 12 month and provided 60% of the energy needed for the commute each day.
  
  Without doing the math, that means they've broken several barriers in solar panel development, and this paint is more efficient than regular solar panels. If true, these guys aren't a car company any more, they are a solar company.
  
  And the absolutely last thing we should be painting with this stuff is a vehicle that will likely spend much of its time inside a garage. If this breakthrough technology truly exists we should be painting all kinds of other things with it instead including currently existing solar panels apparently.
  
  Gotta start somewhere and it's probably really hard to pitch expensive paint as a solution. If cars with solar paint take off, the prices come down substantially....and if it goes on a fancy car, it's got the cool factor now
  
  Without doing the math, that means they’ve broken several barriers in solar panel development,
  I'm borrowing this from elsewhere, but someone has done the math and says it works out.
  The typical daily driven distance is only around 50 km or 30 miles, EV consumption is around 4 mpkWh so that's sound 7.5 kWh to recover in LA it's 9 hours average sunshine per day. So we need to collect solar energy at a rate of 830 W.
  At 25% it's 3.4 kW solar radiation.
  Solar intensity in LA is only around 300 W/m2
  So you need 11 m2 coverage.

18 comments