Aptera, The Solar Electric Car
Solar Options
How Is 40 Miles Per Day Possible?
Aptera Motors has announced that with the full solar package, a customer living in the right
climate can achieve up to 40 miles per day of electrical charge. How did they do this? Did
they achieve a stunning advance in solar efficiency?
The answer is No. Instead of making the solar panels more efficient, they made the car more
efficient. They didn’t use focus groups, they didn’t use surveys, and they didn’t hire a
professional designer to design a car that he thought would sell. Instead, they took their cues
from nature and also used what’s called computational fluid dynamics to design a car that is
the most efficient one possible with the lowest coefficient of drag (.13) of any car on the
road.
Environmental Concerns
Any car presents a very challenging environment for solar cells. First off, most cars are made
up of compound curves while the cells made for your house are in flat solar panels. Solar
cells have never been mounted in a compound curve configuration before. Also, on a car, the
cells have to withstand constant vibration and shock, adverse weather such as extreme heat,
extreme cold, high winds (200 mph), and even hail.
Aptera has its own solar facility where they test solar cells and encapsulating materials so
they can find the right products for their use case.
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Solar Cells-Choices
Aptera Motors has announced that they will be using a silicon mono-crystalline cell for their
electric cars. The cells they will be using for their panel are the “Maxeon” cells. To handle the
harsh environmental conditions common to automobiles, the cells will be encapsulated in a
protective layer of clear material laminated from seven layers. What this material is made up
of has not been specified, but it was chosen after hours of testing to find a suitable product.
You may have heard that Peroskovite is the latest thing in solar panels because it’s cheaper
and more efficient. Unfortunately, durability is a problem for Peroskovite. Peroskovite cells
only last about five years whereas the silicon mono-crystalline cells last up to 25 years so it’s
easy to see why Aptera went the way they did.
Solar Cells for Aptera
Maxeon Solar Cells
As I mentioned before, Maxeon cells which are sold by Sunpower will be used. The Maxeon
cells are unique compared to other cells. They are very thin and have a solid copper coating
on the back instead of the metallic paste backing that other cells have. This paste coating
which is on most cells, causes the cell to shatter when bent or broken. The Maxeon cells
bend into compound shapes without breaking which is what Aptera needs for its electric car.
In fact, when the cells are bent far enough to break, the copper backing stays together and
as a result, the cell appears to be merely cracked, not broken. As a bonus, the cell still puts
out power.
Encapsulating Material
Last, but not least, is the encapsulating material that will go on top of the cells. This
encapsulating material will also have to be weatherproof, but Aptera wants the material to
be easily removable so customers can upgrade their cells when cell technology advances,
So there you have it. Solar is an important feature of this electric car from Aptera so I expect
the Aptera team to pay particular attention to this aspect of the car. As a matter of fact, I
understand that Aptera has an engineer whose sole job is to work on the solar aspect
.
Update: June 14th, 2022
It appears that Aptera Motors has had to change course on its solar plans. It looked like they had settled on the Maxeon cells, but now they say that they haven’t been able to find commercially available cells that would work for their use. They need cells that can handle the rigors of automotive use plus the cells have to be flexible enough to be placed on the compound curves of a car.
Since commercially available cells won’t work, Aptera has had to staff a completely separate division in another location to come up with cells that will fit their needs. So far, the solar staff has filed over 50 patents on solar cells while on their quest to build cells suitable for the Aptera. One of the most difficult aspects of the cells they are designing is the longevity angle. Aptera feels that the cells should last at least 20 years on the car. This is where most of the commercially available solar cells were lacking. The solar team is confident that they can meet all the necessary requirements.
Update: October 1st, 2022
Aptera Motors revealed their “Gamma” prototype at the “Fully Charged Live” show in San Diego on September 10th, 11th 2022. The was Aptera’s first car to actually have working solar cells. It was announced that they have indeed decided to reverse course again and buy cells from Maxeon. Perhaps Maxeon was able to customize the cells to fit Aptera Motor’s needs.
Whatever the case. Aptera Motors stressed that they had to do quite a bit of testing before they were happy with the encapsulating process. Testing included shooting the panels with ice balls to simulate hail and dropping steel balls on them to simulate the gravel and rocks that will hit the car while on the road.
The cells are bonded to the encapsulating material to make a complete solar panel. This panel is then bolted to the car’s body. This process means that it will be easy to upgrade or replace your panels as time goes by.
Also announced at the show, was that the solar panels are already in limited production at the company’s 130,000 sq/ft solar factory just two miles down the road.