The technically bereft trolls may as well stay hidden under the floor boards as this technical stuff would cause their delicate "brains" to swell and implode.

Is it practical to charge an electric car with solar panels ?
so this is saying the solar panels I have on my roof will charge a Tesla 3 for 35km's a hour, so in 3 hours it will do me 100km's more than enough for daily driving. Good article Jules thanks 



How Many Solar Panels Do You Need To Charge An Electric Car?
October 5, 2017 by Ronald Brakels 28 Comments

https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/car-plug-house.jp...
dude charging his car with solar

If you are thinking of buying an electric car and have solar then you need to read this.

I recently wrote about how an electric car revolution is coming thanks to declining battery costs and rising environmental concern.  I made a promise in that article I would soon write about charging electric cars with rooftop solar and soon is now.  Or at least it soon will be.

One concern that came up in the comments was whether people could fit enough panels on their roof to charge an electric car.  But the good news is a car that’s driven the average distance for an Australian passenger vehicle is likely to require less than 8 kilowatt-hours a day.  This means for most households 2 kilowatts of solar panels will produce more electrical energy over the course of a year than an electric car will consume.  Most homes can fit 2 kilowatts of panels on their roof in addition to enough panels to equal or exceed household electricity consumption.

The bad news is 56% of Australian families have 2 or more cars.

Electric Car Kilowatt-Hour Consumption
The number of kilometers an electric car can drive per kilowatt-hour of stored electricity varies.  Fortunately, it is easy enough to use US Environmental Protection Agency figures to determine range per kilowatt-hour of battery storage1.  Some examples are:


Because electric cars won’t allow their battery to go completely flat to protect it from deterioration, the real kilometers per kilowatt-hour are slightly higher, but it should make little difference, as modern electric cars don’t leave much juice in the electric juice pack once they hit zero kilometers of remaining range.

Unlike the range figures that come from Europe or Japan, the US ones are reasonably realistic and it is possible for a normal driver to replicate them or even do better if they’re careful.  But if your driving style consists of alternating between stomping on the accelerator and stomping on the brake then I’m afraid you’ll do much worse, while if you someone who drives like you are gently making love, then you’ll probably be arrested and I strongly recommend getting the tinted windows option.

https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/elcar.jpg
It is possible to now buy electric cars that look even better than they did in the 70s. (It’s impossible to find pants that good though.)

Charging Losses
The figures above are for energy that’s already in a car battery pack.  Unfortunately, some energy is always lost squeezing it in there in the first place.  Losses occur from changing household AC power into the DC power car battery packs need to charge2 and energy is lost by the batteries themselves as they charge.

This study from 2014 found charging a Nissan Leaf was only 84% efficient when slowly charging from a from a standard US power point3 and 89% when a home charger that provides more power was used.

As most people are likely to use a home charger rather than just plug into a power point, 90% efficiency seems like a good rule of thumb for charging, especially since modest improvements in efficiency are likely.  Mind you, it will vary depending on the car and situation.  I have read some truly atrocious estimates for the Tesla S sports car.  Hopefully their new Model 3 will do better, as it is designed for people who are not entirely made of money.

If you buy a car that gets 7 kilometers per kilowatt-hour of battery pack charge and take care to drive reasonably efficiently, then you are likely to get 6.3 kilometers per kilowatt-hour of electricity you charge it with.  If you are a bit of a sloppy driver, and I think most of us are, you may only get 5 kilometers per kilowatt-hour.

Read the depressing rest of the flat battery stuff here

https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/charging-electric-cars/

A U.S. jury in Georgia on Thursday awarded $150 million to a family that sued Chrysler Group LLC for the 2012 death of their 4-year-old in a fiery crash involving a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a rear fuel tank.

Following a nearly two-week trial in Decatur County, Georgia, jurors said Chrysler, a unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, was liable for the death of Remington Walden and failed to warn customers that the tank’s position could increase the risk of fire in a rear-end crash.

Chrysler previously recalled 1.56 million Jeep SUVs with rear fuel tanks, although the 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee in which Walden was riding was not among them.

The jury, which began deliberating Thursday afternoon, said Chrysler acted with “reckless and wanton disregard” and ordered it to pay 99 percent of the damages. The driver of the vehicle that rear-ended the Grand Cherokee was responsible for the other 1 percent.

Walden was killed when the Jeep he was riding in was struck from behind, rupturing the fuel tank and creating an “inferno,” according to Jim Butler, a lawyer for the family. Had the fuel tank been placed farther forward on the vehicle, he said, it would have been better protected.

Concerns over fuel-tank placement prompted Chrysler to announce in 2013 that it would recall 1993-1998 Jeep Grand Cherokees, along with the Jeep Libertys from model years 2002-2007. The company also said it would conduct a “customer satisfaction campaign” for 1999-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees.

The announcement came after Chrysler initially denied there was a safety issue. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has linked more than 50 deaths to the fuel-tank issues.

Chrysler’s lawyers said at trial that the fire did not cause Walden’s death and blamed the driver of the other vehicle. Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, whose pre-recorded testimony was played during trial, said that regulators never found a defect in the 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee and that there was no evidence the vehicle was dangerous. Reuters viewed the proceedings on Courtroom View Network.