Solar Cover, Lightbar (Hella), and Cyber Shop Confirmed for Cybertruck!

[fhteagle]

So ask yourself, which truck looks most like a teardrop

Keep in mind "looks like a teardrop" and "aerodynamically acts like a teardrop" are not always the same thing. Area rule is not the area law for a reason

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[SanDiego2006]

The solar cover option is interesting in general as mentioned on the other thread.

The question is if it's something that is installed permanently or if it like a solar blanket that you have to manually setup.

Either way it means that there is a connection point to which power can be applied to add energy to the pack, through the CT electrical systems. This could be either a set of terminals that a MPPT solar controller would be connected to if that option is selected, or that a MPPT controller is already included in the CT electrical systems. Provided this has enough capacity, it also means that third party solar setups have a point to interconnect directly without using the charge plug, or the a potential V2S setup. It might even be 48V or so allowing for a DC generator range extender or the like.

Overall I think this is good news for solar accessory producers, and people that want to add solar for their overlanding expeditions etc.

I'd love to see the glass roof exchanged for a bifacial solar panel. It won't get any significant energy from the bottom side but would allow for a translucent solar panel overhead. Best of all worlds in my opinion.

 

[FutureBoy]

If I could get like 7 miles a day out of the solar (which I think Elon eluded to) I would likely never need to charge during the week. Weekend is a different animal though

If you are only commuting a total of 7 miles per day, you don't need the solar at all. Just charge up at the beginning of the week and at the start of your weekend fun times. There is plenty of range to drive 7 miles per day for a whole week.

 

[FutureBoy]

That's my point. All states require any light above 54" (some as low as 42") to remain off on public highways. Four states (CA, PA, VA, & WV) mandate that light lenses above 54" be COVERED by an opaque covering.

All states don't want people driving around with high mounted lights blinding other drivers, Those four REALLY want to make sure you don't even accidentally turn them on.

I think this is the whole reason Tesla abandoned the integrated, behind the windshield light strip.

Here's California's vehicle code on the matter.

So wait.... If I buy the light bar and then place inside the windshield but at the base of the windshield, I'd be OK? Hmmmmm.... That might be an interesting choice... Might get occasionally blocked out by the BAW but hey, no wind resistance.

 

[Gurule92]

If you are only commuting a total of 7 miles per day, you don't need the solar at all. Just charge up at the beginning of the week and at the start of your weekend fun times. There is plenty of range to drive 7 miles per day for a whole week.

Right but the solar could eliminate all weekday driving cost. Forever basically

 

[Gurule92]

The efficiency of photovoltaic panels is currently not there. as elon mentioned in his last joe rogan appearance, a CT-covering solar pack would charge at about 1kwh max when on the equator.

Anything else will not give you even enough juice to travel those 7 miles on a sunny day. We are just limited by the efficiency of pv-panels at this point in time.

A much more realistic solution is using solar panels at home, store in a powerwall, and charge your vehicle that way.

He said a kw per square meter is the suns output, not one kwh per day.
If you had an input of 1 kw for 1 hour thats 1kwh gained (minus conversion loss).

So if we consider the bed size of the ct (not super accurate for vault) of 6'x4' thats 2.23 square meters

if we optimally were getting 1kwh per hour at 1 square meter, then we would be getting 2.23kwh per hour at 2.23 square meters.

If use this guys math https://www.cybertruckownersclub.com/forum/threads/ct-lightning-or-silverado-rst-wait.10506/

and say the CT gets 2.76 miles per kwh and consider this chart for sun times

if we consider totally optimal input and 7 hours of sun
we would gain 2.23 * 7 = 15.61 kwh of power (higher than reality)

at a rate of 2.76 miles per kwh. thats 15.61 * 2.76 = 43.0836 miles per day gained

Now, obviously we would not hit that optimal figure, but I think 7 miles per day is totally achievable

Elon's point was that the sun could never run a car indefinitely.

 

[Gurule92]

kwh = kilowatt hour if you have solar panels you know there's only a limted time in a day when they're efficient.



I have my roof covered with 9 panels of 1,5m2. The peak power of a 1.5m2 panel is 350W, it's 300W normally. there is no way with current physics to get that much power from solar panels.




at 400W for that 2.2m2 setup you'd need a full day in the baking sun to be lucky to get to that 7 miles.

exactly! now you're getting it.
The optimal was never going to be achieved. But all I need is 7. and honestly. 7 might be more than i need lol.

For the right price I would do that.

Then i would only need to charge on weekends. The end goal of this being that i could be maximum lazy.

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