I hear that most solar panels are wired in line, so if you get any shade on one panel, none of them work. What?!!!!! Will the Aptera be different. Parking under trees etc or not in full sun. And if you get the full package, looks like it blocks your review mirror. Or is that a camera?
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The rear and side mirrors are all cameras, as for the solar cells I’ve heard they are set up to handle partial shade but if someone else can confirm if that is accurate.
@Ron Travisano If panels are wired in series it's not that shade on one of them makes all the others stop working - it's that it lowers the overall voltage because voltage is additive. When panels are wired in parallel the voltage stays the same but shade on one or more panels will result in a change in amperage. I'm not an electrician - nor am I an electrical engineer - so don't ask me for details: The only thing I know for certain about electricity is that you should NEVER put it in your mouth...
As @Riley noted, the "rear view mirror" is a video screen: If you look closely at the attached image you'll see an area at the top of the hatch that looks as if 3 solar cells are missing - or that appears to be not glass. That's where the rear camera and the high-center taillight live.
Any idea how the legal battle to use this tech is going? I heard Tesla can't get away with no external mirrors either. I don't think it is technically legal yet.
@Ron Travisano Aptera is, legally, a motorcycle in some states and an autocycle in others. As such, automotive "rules" don't, necessarily, apply. The fact that the Founders have decided to build Aptera to automotive safety standards is entirely their own doing, bless 'em!
@Kerbe #12705 Ahhhhhh!!!! I was forgetting about the AutoCycle angle. Wow, so we think they are cleared for video screen mirror replacement? This is very cool. Thanks.
I have had Solar PV panels on homes for nearly twenty years NO your generation will be impacted So on an Aptera with full solar just point the hatch/tail south or southwest with no shade for max production
As Riley states there are cameras but also a rear view camera
There have been advances dealing with this partial shading issue in home PV solar arrays. Both microinverters and power optimisers essentially allow every solar panel in a system to operate independently. So, if one or more panels are shaded, the others can still produce and use their full output. However, this is a more complex and expensive system than the older / traditional system where partial shading did significantly bring down the usable output from non-shaded panels. I doubt Aptera is going with this more complex solution, though perhaps we will be surprised. For most scenarios in parking lots, driveways, etc., cars will likely be either fully out in the sun or fully shaded, so partial shade performance across the relatively small area of an Aptera's top surface would likely not happen too frequently. If the car is entirely in shade, then of course the output of the entire system will go down anyhow (whether or not it has microinverters and power optimisers).
@Scott Perhaps the fact that the system is modular - that you can add a solar hood and/or hatch to the basic roof/dashboard set-up - means that it will be a parallel system... Aptera has designed its own inverter and electronics for the solar array so I suppose time will tell!
Great information and perspective. Do we have any idea what kind of charging would occur in full shade? I park behind my house, not side, get very little sun. Curious if sitting out there a few days in the shade will do anything at all.
@Ron Travisano, solar panels can produce electricity in the shade, on cloudy days, and in other suboptimal conditions. However, the power production drops off drastically since the available solar energy is a LOT less in shade than in full sun. Many people don't know how reduced it actually is since our eyes adapt so well to both bright light and shade conditions. However, the actual brightness range is very large and the power produced is significantly reduced in shade and cloudy conditions.
The angle of each solar panel relative to the sun can also significantly affect power output. Given the swoopy lines of the Aptera, some panels will perform better than other panels even when they are all out in direct sun. The panels most perpendicular to the sun will have the widest energy exposure to produce more power. Solar panels that are curved away from perpendicular to the sun will have reduced power output compared to the better positioned panels. So, the same car sitting out in an open parking lot will not even have consistent power output from every panel across the car surface due to variations in relative orientation to where the sun is located at a given time.