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Power your Full-Sized Pickup Truck from the Sun

Media_Truth

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When people think of solar energy, they don't think of massive power. The Rivian is a full-sized electric pickup truck (available 2020), more powerful than the Toyota Tacoma.



Here's a Motor Trend comparison to the Toyota Tacoma. Consider:

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Helping make those numbers possible is a standard air suspension that gives the R1T 7.9 inches to 14.2 inches of ground clearance, significantly greater than the Tacoma's 9.4 inches.
...
Rivian claims the aluminum and steel R1T will hit 60 mph in just 3.0 seconds with the medium-sized battery.
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Rivian also claims an 11,000-pound tow rating, though max towing will slow you down and cut your range in half. A four-door, four-wheel-drive Tacoma's tow rating tops out at 6,400 pounds.

Now the solar - SolarEdge has manufactured an inverter that will take power from solar panels and charge a vehicle with a 220-volt charge. The larger system is 7600 Watts. This will fully charge the Rivian in less than 14 hours. The Rivian (small-sized battery), fully-charged, has a 230-mile range.

SolarEdge | A World Leader in Smart Energy | A World Leader in Smart Energy

If designed properly, these Solar Edge systems can meet the total driving needs of most American households, without even being grid-tied. Similar to an off-grid home, the car batteries become the power storage for the solar energy. If one only achieves a 50 percent charge on some days, that still covers 115 miles for the Rivian pickup, and much more for Teslas, Chevy Bolts, and other EVs. And if it's rainy for 2 days - no big deal. Just plug it into a household outlet. You're not stranded.
 
At almost 3 times the base price of a Tacoma ... I think I'll pass.
 

One can only dream. My budget for a car is typically under a grand. My gas-guzziling, F-150 from the mid-90's was about eight-hundred bucks
 
DH Kirkwood said:
One can only dream. My budget for a car is typically under a grand. My gas-guzziling, F-150 from the mid-90's was about eight-hundred bucks
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Wow! I'm blown away! And amazed. Hey, it's not my thing, but you've got my respect if it's yours.
 
Chomsky said:
Wow! I'm blown away! And amazed. Hey, it's not my thing, but you've got my respect if it's yours.
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I will definitely be installing the Solar-Edge system this year, so I qualify for the 30% Federal tax credit. The tax credit starts phasing out in 2020. I'll use that to charge my Chevy Volt. It will produce way too much power for my Volt, so I'm looking into Netmetering the system. The Rivian - maybe next year - we'll see!
 
Ummm...will it pull my boat? and when it has rained for two days in the mountains, there isnt a convenient outlet for me to plug it into.

I think it might work for yuppie truck owners though...the same folk that buy Cadillac trucks.
 
Barnacle said:
At almost 3 times the base price of a Tacoma ... I think I'll pass.
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Not at all - the Tacoma price ranges from $27K to $46K. The Rivian, with the small battery system (230-mile range), comes in at $60K. The Federal Tax credit on the Rivian is $7500. My state of Colorado gives an additional $5K tax credit. Now you're down to $47,500, right in the ballpark of the Tacoma. BTW - I took both of these these tax credits this year, with my Volt.

Think of it - no gasoline bills to boot!!!
 
230 miles and 14 hour charge? Not very appealing. And only 115 if I'm towing?
 
VanceMack said:
Ummm...will it pull my boat? and when it has rained for two days in the mountains, there isnt a convenient outlet for me to plug it into.

I think it might work for yuppie truck owners though...the same folk that buy Cadillac trucks.
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I'm a 64-year-old rural-living, acreage-owning farmer-type - hardly a yuppie. My wife has about 200 chickens and other animals. I am sold on solar. I am sold on EVs. I have both!
 
I haven't seriously researched or considered this stuff, but you've got my respect if you can get it to work for you.

I'm not against them, and am actually leaning towards these types of solutions. But I'm just too busy and lazy to do the research I would need to feel confident in implementing them, plus doing the time, effort, and expense of the implementations themselves.

But I will say this:

For the first time I'm considering getting a hybrid vehicle for our family.
 
Media_Truth said:
I'm a 64-year-old rural-living, acreage-owning farmer-type - hardly a yuppie. My wife has about 200 chickens and other animals. I am sold on solar. I am sold on EVs. I have both!
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Im not NOT sold on anything. I think where solar and other green energy options work they should absolutely be employed. But that doesnt change my point. Does the proposed truck with its anticipated 115 mile range allow for a good full day of work hauling and pulling things on a farm? Load tends to drain batteries.

Dont get my comments wrong. I think its great they are working on these things. Hell, if we could perfect Mr Fusion that runs on garbage I'd be all for it.
 
Bullseye said:
230 miles and 14 hour charge? Not very appealing. And only 115 if I'm towing?
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14 HOURS is for Level 1 charging. Level 2 and Level 3 charging cuts charge time significantly.
It's not for everyone but it meets a market for enough people.
Besides, hybrid trucks are about to debut now that hybrid minivans have proven popular.
 

Vehicle, as in "car"? Get a 2019 Volt.
 
4 problems with EVs:

1. If you do not own your property such as living an apartment you're out of luck for recharging without sitting somewhere else.

2. If one does the math of how much fuel they could buy with the difference for how much the EV costs they might not save any money at all.

3. Government is not going to give up their fuel-road tax income, so as EVs become more popular will impose a road tax on recharging stations eliminating some of the fuel savings.

4. Under the banner of climate change laws, the cost of electricity is likely to increase significantly, while fuel costs won't escalate as more EVs means less demand for gasoline keeping the price down.
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
Vehicle, as in "car"? Get a 2019 Volt.
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I bought my 2018 Volt (2017 car of the year, BTW) for aobut $32K. I just finished my 2019 taxes, and took the $7500 Federal tax credit, and a $5K State tax credit. Conventional hybrids no longer qualify for these tax credits, so Electric's the WTG.
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
14 HOURS is for Level 1 charging. Level 2 and Level 3 charging cuts charge time significantly.
It's not for everyone but it meets a market for enough people.
Besides, hybrid trucks are about to debut now that hybrid minivans have proven popular.
Click to expand...

Hybrids make more sense. You don't get stranded with a hybrid.
 

Not sure where you got the 115-mile range. Maybe towing a vehicle??? The minimum range, for the small-battery system is 230 miles.
 
Media_Truth said:
Not sure where you got the 115-mile range. Maybe towing a vehicle??? The minimum range, for the small-battery system is 230 miles.
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Hasnt everything I have said implied the question to reliability is regarding use under load, be it a working farm truck or pulling a boat?

If I want to go 300 miles on my own and use hardly any fuel I'll take one of my bikes.
 
joko104 said:
4 problems with EVs:

1. If you do not own your property such as living an apartment you're out of luck for recharging without sitting somewhere else.
Click to expand...

Good point. My daughter has the "apartment" problem.

joko104 said:
2. If one does the math of how much fuel they could buy with the difference for how much the EV costs they might not save any money at all.
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See my posts on Tax Credits - huge savings.

joko104 said:
3. Government is not going to give up their fuel-road tax income, so as EVs become more popular will impose a road tax on recharging stations eliminating some of the fuel savings.
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Good point too. Most states collect at the time of licensing, with an additional charge. I had to pay a $50 surcharge to the state of CO.

joko104 said:
4. Under the banner of climate change laws, the cost of electricity is likely to increase significantly, while fuel costs won't escalate as more EVs means less demand for gasoline keeping the price down.
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Two points here. I believe, once we start depleting the Dakota fossil fuel reserve, which will probably be sooner than later, the way the US burns gasoline; you can expect rapidly increasing fuel prices. Coupling in the solar charging means near ZERO electric and gasoline costs. Most people are afraid of the up-front costs of solar PV systems. They don't do the actual calculations, and realize the savings involved.
 
VanceMack said:
Hasnt everything I have said implied the question to reliability is regarding use under load, be it a working farm truck or pulling a boat?

If I want to go 300 miles on my own and use hardly any fuel I'll take one of my bikes.
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The large-battery option is good for 400-miles. Not sure what kind of boat you have, but I doubt it weighs as much as a car, which is the basis for the 1/2-mileage towing. So you'd probably be good for closer to 300 miles, before recharging.
 
i'm looking forward to a time when solar energy gets even more viable. i would replace my roof with solar panels if i could.
 
Media_Truth said:
The large-battery option is good for 400-miles. Not sure what kind of boat you have, but I doubt it weighs as much as a car, which is the basis for the 1/2-mileage towing. So you'd probably be good for closer to 300 miles, before recharging.
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The small one...maybe. The big one...we'll see. If it gets to be a reliable industry I think thats great. I'm all about effective green energy, especially from commercial developers working for profit.
 
One of them many lies told about EVs is that they are "green" and emissions free. In fact, EVs are coal-powered cars, the dirtiest exhaust of them all. Coal burning plants do not have the low emissions rate that cars do. The reason electricity is cheaper is because coal is cheaper and transporting electricity costs less than transporting fuel. They don't do strip mining for oil. They do for coal. Using coal to ultimately power EVs is far less thermal conversion efficiency - meaning higher CO2 emissions.

That they are actually coal powered cars and adding that the energy conversion from coal to electricity to loses in transmission, lost energy in transformers, lost energy in chargers etc makes EVs the environmentally dirtiest cars of all. It would be FAR cleaner to just have those cars be coal burning steam powered cars to eliminate all the lost energy in the multi stages of energy conversion from coal to electricity.

Until electrical production is green, EVs are the highest co2 and polluting cars of all.
 
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