Comments by "N. Bruce Nelson" (@n.brucenelson5920) on "Engineering Explained" channel.

  1. 134a is a non starter because it has about 1300 times the GWP of CO2. It was a great gas for addressing the ozone hole problem however. Propane actually makes a good refrigerant gas. The flamability is no different than with conventional refrigerants mixed with the oil that circulates with them and can be managed to be safe through proper design.
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  2. Hybrid systems require more parts, are more costly to produce, and have poorer performance do to more weight. They are a stop gap measure.
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  3.  @GregDinAZ  Understood. Thanks for your reply. I have the same constraints. In my case, if the proposed federal rebate becomes a reality that would make a big difference. My wife and I had a ride in an alpha prototype in November and from a performance standpoint, 2WD is still thrilling. Since our Gen 1 Honda insight does OK in snow we think the 2WD will be fine. We are not in such a big hurry anymore that the large, heavy battery is worth it for us. We will take more breaks to recharge and save even more money sleeping in the back instead of finding a hotel room. We have ordered the 40 kWh model, but with full solar.
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  4.  @simonthebroken9691  The wait won't be long - perhaps end of the year or early next year. My wife and I have both ridden in one.
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  5. Good for you, I have done the same.
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  6. For some, It won't be. Others will be able to meet their entire energy needs through the full solar option.
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  7. Both can be done, it is not either/or.
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  8. With the present panels the true energy gain is more like 4 or 4.2 kWh on a sunny day, but your point still holds. Solar panel efficiency is likely to increase and cost come down over the next 20 years as well. Aptera has IP over a design that makes them easy to replace in the event of damage or technical improvement.
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  9. In the case of Aptera that would be less than 10 pounds, including circuitry.
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  10.  @peterchandler8505  Exactly. The relative inefficiency means that hydrogen can never be as environmentally or as cost effective as battery/solar, even allowing for the manufacturing energy inputs.
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  11. I am thrilled to say I will have one of the first 50. I expect to have mine in the Feb time frame, realistically.
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  12.  @frenchchriss9880  Aptera is not any normal metal car body The body is a foam filled sandwich with a much higher r value than a normal car, so it heats up at a much slower rate.
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  13. Check out Aptera. Their largest number of engineers are developing Solar, and they will be filing for 50 patents or more in this area.
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  14. It will be for some users, but as you point out, there are many others. Just 1000 Apteras with V2G tech in a city of 1 million would cut the peak energy demand capacity for that city by 30%.
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  15. The drag of the alternators saps energy in the form of heat and you don't get as much electricity back to convert to motion to overcome the added drag it produces.
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  16. Not only does Aptera have batteries in the car- with V2G, they will be able to feed power back into the house, too when the grid is under stress.
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  17.  @GregDinAZ  All the best. I spent 16 years in Mesa, so I have pretty good idea of your environment. I just moved to Iowa, where we have real winters.
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  18. It is certainly possible to charge while parked if you can spare the weight and volume of the wind charger.
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  19.  @ezymarkz  Pretty close. Aptera panels are 22-23% efficient and have about 750 peak watts, or a total of about 4 to 4.4 kWh on a good day.
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  20.  @jaypaans3471  Check out Aptera at a fraction of the cost.
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  21. Aptera has about 35 sq. ft of solar panels, or a peak 750 watts. This is enough for about 4.4 kWh in the Southwest.
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  22. The Aptera uses a foam filled body shell that has a far higher r value than a typical metal bodied car. The AC will not be stressed. They are designing it for up to 125 F ambient conditions.
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  23. A good, but far more costly option.
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  24. Aptera will be crash tested to automotive standards before it ships and will rate well. My Gen 1 Honda Insight protected me in a 60 mph collision from behind by a large car, and I was uninjured. Aptera will be considerably safer.
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  25. You missed the way the solar insolation charts are developed....
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  26. Propane cars are used in mass production in some areas, especially in the Netherlands. They do have emissions though, and are more complex to built than an Aptera.
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  27. A full solar Aptera has less than 10 lbs of cells on the roof. An AWD model with a 1000 mile battery weighs around 2200 lbs and has over 200 continuous hp.
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  28. There will be significant numbers of people who drive the average 30-40 miles per day and live in sunny areas that will see most of their driving needs covered by the present Aptera design. At a added cost of $900 for the full solar option it already is cost effective for many people. This is possible because of the energy efficiency offered by the Aptera design.
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  29. Ambassador George Shultz had solar panels on his house and he gleefully told me how driving his Tesla was cost free because his solar supplied all the power he needed.
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  30. While you are belching out contaminates that are setting the forests around you on fire.
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  31. Voltage is not an issue anymore with dc-dc conversion tech. The question will be is the power enough.
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  32. Some are doing that now.
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  33. The most efficient Teslas have more than 2.5 times the energy requirements for the same speed.
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  34. The real advantage for Aptera is that it uses 1/3 the power of a Tesla to go the same speed and distance.
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  35. Almost no one would need to do that.
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  36.  @tomgnyc  An Aptera could charge to a 1000 mile range at EPA Highway cycle speeds in an hour at such a charger provided the charging rate didn't slow down as the battery approaches full charge. (It does). This is likely less time than the time required for gasoline fillups for a conventional ICE vehicle making such a trip.
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  37. Very little extra weight and cost. Why not both?
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  38. Aptera publishes a solar insolation chart sourced from US government data that shows how much solar energy you can expect on the average at your location.
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  39. That company liquidated. It was bought out of liquidation by the original founders in 2019 and the original team reassembled. They are back with a bran new design and successful business startups under their belts, including a successful IPO. They just hired a very experienced CFO. They are happening.
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  40. Something like that is coming.
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  41. Strictly speaking, full solar is a $900 option.
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  42. Where did this idea come from? It isn't the case
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  43. Aptera will be tested to US crash safety standards and the results published before they start shipping. We know from modeling that it will do exceedingly well.
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  44. The Aptera solar panels come in at 22-23% efficiency and the vehicle uses around 100 watt hours per mile at a speed of around 50 mph average (EPA highway cycle)
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  45. Remember "they" is we. We make collective choices.
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  46. That will vary by battery size and chemistry. New batteries have higher charge capacity at high temperatures.
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  47. The Aptera panesl are inexpensive and there is proprietary tech that makes them easy to change. The entire cost of full solar is only $900.
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  48.  @ps.2  Aptera panels are 22-23% efficient at present.
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  49. Aptera achieves close to 340 eMPH
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  50. At that point it is simpler and cheaper to run a plug to solar panels on the roof of the parking structure.
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  51. Good for you! More power to you (as they say).
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  52. The foam insulated cabin of the Aptera means that that can be done. It has a much higher R value than most cars.
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  53. That could be true with any car. The full solar version will have the rear hatch completely covered, so no glare coming from the back.
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  54.  @Jkauppa  Which reflects the present Aptera design.
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  55. You have some incorrect information here. The Aptera panels will not be glazed (glass covered) and are between 22-23% efficient.
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  56. Aptera can collect enough power for 40 miles per day at EPA highway speeds, or 20 miles per day in Iowa where I live, with the full solar model.
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  57. The motor efficiency is high, over 90%, partly because there are no transmission losses. There is also less rolling resistance due to the 3 wheel design.
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  58. The reason it is practical for Aptera and not for Tesla is because Tesla doesn't have a foam sandwich, high r value body like Aptera and it uses almost 3 times the power of an Aptera at EPA highway speeds, and much more than that as the speed increases from there.
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  59. Aptera panels are about 22-23% efficient.
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  60. The panels on the Mars rover were cleaned by dumping dirt on them. Here we have car washes.
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  61. Good for you! Full solar for Aptera only runs $900, so a lot of progress is being made in this area.
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  62. The same efficiency that makes solar work, also offers lower cost to run on any electric power source,
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  63. The Aptera vehicles will still gain range about 3 times faster than a Tesla when plugged into a power source and cost 1/3 to run.. The efficiency advantage is still there even if you have to plug it in more often than those who can take advantage of the solar boost.
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  64. Remember that the ultra high efficiency of the Aptera is still paying off, even if solar isn't used at all. Those who don't need it don't have to pay the $900 it will cost, but there are few that wouldn't see a payback over the life of the car.
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  65. Unlike Tesla, the Aptera body has a foam sandwich with a high r value, so the heat load it has to deal with is much less.
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  66.  @ps.2  The premium for full solar, which gives around 4 kWh or better in sunny locations is only $900, and less than 10 lbs of weight, so yes, it is worth it.
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  67. That figure comes from the 100 watt hours per mile used at EPA highway cycle speeds which go up to 67 mph, but average around 48-50 mph.
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  68. The 2 seat Aptera will pass automotive crash safety standards.
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  69. The Aptera panels are rated at a peak of 750 watts. They probably produce somewhere around 4 to 4.4 kWh per day in sunny climes.
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  70. Watch the video and you won't make such silly statements. It takes a lot more work to make a vehicle so energy efficient as to make solar practical.
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  71. Aptera is a niche vehicle and can only hold two people. It is not a family car. It will be safe, however.
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  72. Even the alpha vehicles are doing better than those numbers, and there are still savings to be had. Your suggestion to combine roof top solar is a good one, and V2G will also be a big advantage for the stability of the grid, even with a relatively small number of vehicles. Because of the weight and cost of the batteries, battery swapping will not be easily achievable at first.
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  73. The Aptera founders are big fans of what Lightyear is doing, but they are coming in at much lower costs.
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  74. No generator is 100% efficient. The 10% power loss (best case) will quickly drain the power used for motion and is lost as heat.
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  75.  @ps.2  Full solar for the Aptera is only $900. Payback will be rapid for most people, depending on their power rates, but certainly over the life of the panels for almost everyone.
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  76. The technology is here now. It is a matter of cost.
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  77. You are correct. Battery costs make up much of the cost of an Aptera, or indeed any electric car. But the need for rare earth minierals is likely to plummet and there will be abundant sources opening up, such as seawater.
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  78. They do. Tesla even has it. Aptera will have a pet mode.
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  79. LOL, your lack of reason is showing.
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  80. Remember that with only wheels and a Cd of less than 0.13, an Aptera has far lower power requirements than those vehicles - less than 100 watt hours per mile at EPA Highway cycle speeds.
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  81. The panels Aptera is using are 22-23% efficient. It is quite possible that in a few years even more efficient panels will be available a lower prices.
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  82. At the very least it can do that, including A/C, with little impact on range.
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  83. In many areas you will gain around 11,000 miles per year of cost free travel. Energy costs vary widely, so this calculation will need to be done for a specific location.
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  84.  @electrospank  As I hinted earlier, the amount of power gained and the cost of that power will vary widely depending on location. The average residential customer pays 13.31 cents per kWh. with 1460 KWh collected in an year in sunny locations. The payback, assuming that you never charge at more expensive road side charging stations, will be about 4 years to pay for the cost of full solar.
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  85. You know it isn't an either/or choice, don't you?
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  86. Thorium was considered so dangerous that it was eventually dropped from camera lenses, even though the amount of radiation they gave off was far less than would be generated if it was used as a power source. It just requires too much overhead to compete against renewables.
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  87. What was your main objection?
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  88. The aerodynamics, low rolling resistance and motor/battery efficiency all contribute with the ratio depending on on the speed of the vehicle.
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  89. The Aptera body has a foam filled shell that has a high r value, unlike a typical steel car.
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  90. The 100 watt hours per mile number is for the EPA highway cycle and the heaviest version of Aptera. The alpha cars have been doing better than that.
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  91. Most of us wash our vehicles occasionally, unless we are driving them on Mars, - In that case we dump dirt on them to clean them.
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  92. The Hydrogen energy round trip will always be considerably more wasteful of energy and therefore more costly than a battery electric system. There may be a place for hydrogen, but it shouldn't be as a personal ground transporation fuel.
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  93. The cells used in Aptera are less expensive and more efficient that the ones in your example. There are also proprietary developments that make them easy to service and change out if needed.
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  94.  @marcusfleuti2672  I think you have not done your calculation correctly. It will vary by location, but It looks to me from looking at solar insulation charts that you are likely to average around 2.5 kWH per day in much of Germany given the area of Aptera panels and the 22-23% collection efficiency., which probably does make sense considering the cost of full solar is only $900. Batteries are expensive and do not change the amount of power you gain through solar. The extra weight also gives you a range penalty. I do agree that stationary solar makes a lot of sense if you have access to it.
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  95. The entire full solar package for an Aptera is only $900, which makes it a no brainer for many people who live in sunny areas.
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  96. An Aptera charges at a rate of 13 miles of additional range per hour of plug time plugged into a 110V 15 amp wall socket, and considerably faster if a 230 volt circuit is used.
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  97. There are quite a few like you, but not everyone, of course.
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  98. The Oil industry will no longer have the power to control it. Their time is passing, and the world knows it.
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  99. Coffee is always a good choice - at least if you are watching in the morning.
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