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Comment by bertil | Hacker News Reader

I’m disappointed they didn’t leverage the expectations to have that van electric. There are now several prototypes that prove that vans have enough surface to charge with solar panels (and some extensions) and be fully off-grid.

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Solar charging can add only approximately 3 miles of range per hour of full sunlight charging. Too slow for the intended purpose.

So you can save something like $10 of gas per day off sitting in the sun? Sounds pretty good for the intended use.

That giant battery could potentially power your climate control and appliances etc when off grid. And if you run down the battery by accident, you won’t be stuck for long.

Sitting in the sun cooking to death. Mobile air conditioners running from solar don't tend to perform well. That 800W you can get from solar under ideal conditions is not going to keep everything running.

So you have to be able to park in the shade and detach the panels and drag them into the sun ? Are there such products ?

> Sitting in the sun cooking to death

Or getting free heating, depending on the climate.

Fold-out array + extra ones on the ground next to it?

3 miles per hour is 40 miles per day. You stay in a place for three days off grid you can probably drive back. And bottomless power for cooking, heat, internet/starlink, etc.

My dream is an EV RV that has airline-level highway self driving and starlink+solar panels. I'd sell everything and live in that.

Uhh that sounds pretty damn good to someone parked in a Walmart parking lot with no plotted next destination.

we come full circle, that's not who's after these vehicles. The person parked in a parking lot in walmart likely would have a RV or regular commuter car, not a fully decked out 150k conversion van.

To OP point, rich people pretending to play poor for vlogging and self-idealized virtuosity can't wait 5+ days to get 200m range out of solar panels, videos gotta go out daily!

You and every other anti-EV comedian is only acknowledging the 1 and 0 states of a battery - full and empty. Partially discharged, charging, and 'just need to get a couple of miles' are also very real possibilities fulfilled by having a small array on the roof.

If only. If you had 3, 100w solar panels on top of your ev van it would take about two months of charging to go 200 miles. That’s assuming clear skies and parking in full sun. This is based on current Teslas reportedly getting 100m of range on 34kWh and your solar setup being 70% efficient.

I think gp meant that you can get enough electricity to live off-grid, that is, powering appliances, not powering the van itself.

Yeah, though this is probably after market upgrade department, along with all the living quarter conversions that come with the territory. I can't imagine many after market installers not having a solar panel option for these.

You can achieve that with a battery unit tucked in a corner, though.

Or when an EV RV comes along, the EV battery is your power battery.

EV RVs:

- better torque for travelling and towing

- regen braking

- skateboard battery for maximum interior space and storage

- simpler powertrain

- battery can function as a home powerwall when you're home, if you have a home

- solar panels to keep energy-positive while parked

- low center of gravity to offset some of the RV tippiness

And Starlink keeps you connected everywhere you go...

And IF they solve highway self-driving to the point you can safely let the RV drive and self-recharge overnight... oh my god.

I'm not saying it's not good or that it lacks synergy, I'm just saying the EV part isn't important for the specific goal of an electric off-grid experience.

> And IF they solve highway self-driving to the point you can safely let the RV drive and self-recharge overnight... oh my god.

A moderately optimistic estimate for power production is about 1kWh per square meter of panels per day. With a 25 square meter roof, and saving 80% of the power, that's 20kWh and probably gives you 20-40 miles of range.

(If you meant driving and recharging overnight via plugging in, then sure that's cool, but self-driving with stops at stations isn't inherently an electric-exclusive experience.)

If that's true, 6 hours per day of sunlight gets you 30 km of driving distance per day. That's faster than walking, and more importantly, it's plenty of distance to find someplace new to park every day so you can avoid annoying sedentists who get suspicious of the new van in their neighborhood.

What you've described sounds more appropriate for an electric bicycle than a full-size van.

If someone only needs to travel < 30 kms per day (per sunny day), then they can fill up the tank on an IC engine for $100 and be set for a month.

You can probably live in a van for less than US$100 per month. You can't live in an electric bicycle at all.

Not if you want to insure it, register it, keep it in good repair, and have a reserve for big repairs.

Yeah, at that level of expenditures it's an asset you're consuming, not an investment you expect to grow over time. If you have big repairs you may be better off buying a new one; I kind of wish I'd done that. You can read my sad story in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33457648.

BTW by "avoid annoying sedentists" upthread I meant "avoid annoying the sedentists", not "avoid the annoying sedentists".

> I’m disappointed they didn’t leverage the expectations to have that van electric.

Don't worry about it. Ford sells an electric version of the Transit van. Every single new piece of this ready-to-convert van will have a part number that you can order at every Ford dealer on earth. Once everything is available, someone with the cash to burn is going to figure out what works together and provide a list so you can make your own without wasting money.

The article says that this will cost $15k more than a base Transit passenger van. I'm not sure that is a good apples-to-apples comparison, but whatever. Again, once it's available, people are going to figure out whether it's a better deal to buy the whole van or just the parts that are useful to you.

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