Now here’s a thing, imagine if simply leaving your car parked up refilled the tank, by magic.
You may guess that I am talking about solar panels on a battery car, but I am not talking about a cheap eBay solar panel nailed to the roof of a milk float, oh no.
Swedish Supercar (or is it Hypercar these days?) manufacturer Koenigsegg have announced the Quant, a 512bhp, 170mph four seater which is driven by asynchronous motors. But rather than use batteries like the Tesla, they have gone for something closer to a super capacitor; the Flow Accumulator Energy Storage (FAES) accumulator which still weighs in at 450kg but can charge in less than 20 minutes giving a range of 300 miles. Its quick charge rate makes it ideal for use with massive regenerative brakes, on most other electric cars the full braking energy is just too much for conventional batteries and so some gets dumped as heat, but this car gets closer to the ideal where you only need to supply the energy for the first acceleration and to cover losses.
But the clever bit is the Pyradian ‘solar electric’ film from NLV Solar which charges the system up. It covers the whole car, body and glazing. Its early days for the technology yet, but give it a few years and all our cars could be powered by sticky back plastic, which would be one in the eye for the oil companies.