Is this the future of off road vehicles?

as I said:
5 days
~60 sqft of panels (or ~6 sq meters)
They said they got about half of a full charge (undisclosed amount) during the trip
By your math, that would be ~60Kwh during the trip

Now I don't know exactly how the numbers stacked up in real life, and I'm unlikely to be able to get my hands on those details, but clearly it isn't infeasible.

 

Amazon dropped $700MIL last week into Rivian. Things will be happening fast. Rumors Chevy is also going to invest.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/rivian-announces-700-million-investment-round-led-by-amazon.html

 

When you take your remote control car out for a day of fun. and it dies in 12 minutes

 

Big money and resources are being pumped into Formula E.

https://www.fiaformulae.com/

It's exciting, and they are really pushing the tech envelope. It will be here sooner than you think.

 

I also don't know how they mounted their panels, whether they trailered the setup in and deployed it as a base camp type deal, or covered the unit with panels. If the panels rotated to optimize their angle to the sun...
I also don't know how long the days were when they went, or what the weather was like.

I'm not saying someone can practically expect to get a "full charge" in an EV every day from solar panels integrated into the vehicle, or that its financially viable to deploy a pocket solar farm for a remote wheeling trip lol.

 

the market will solve this problem. or an astroid.

 

Seeing that Amazon just invested $700 million, I'm excited to see this come to fruitition. Let's be honest the average truck buyer is an occasional home depot trip, mall crawler, this will fit that need perfectly, they just have to get the pricing down.

 

Man after what you’ve done to your truck I’m sure you would wheel an EV! I’d totally ride on that trip!

 

@beertimecontinuum
*build an EV

 

Not enough beer/ebayed Tesla parts lol.

 

One day they will have their own nuclear fusion power plant and will run until they detonate. Good luck with that thing.

 

In an idea world, I'd wheel an EV no question. I just highly doubt that without some groundbreaking advancement the world has yet to see they'll be able to squeeze the kind of range out of an off road EV that we get with gas. Yeah 400 miles sounds great but what about when I throw 1,000 lbs of armor and camping shit onto it and venture into the woods for 3-4 days uninterrupted and subject it to super slow and rough trails with a few 5000+ ft ups and downs along the way? Can't just carry an extra 100 miles in a jerry can with an EV.

 

Who knows maybe they will have some new improved badass solar panels that charge shit a lot faster than what they do now. Or maybe you can carry extra battery cells to replace the dead ones. Fill that frunk up with batteries! Lol

 

I'll buy it as long as it comes with a 5 speed manual

 

Everyone talks about wheeling for days on end when maybe about 10% of you actually might do that. Hell most people I see go wheeling for about 2 days and don’t even carry jerry cans with them. Most people wheel maybe 3-4 times a year and then use their mall crawlers for a daily driver.

 

You're limited by the solar energy hitting the surface of the earth.

Me? I like liquid fueled range extenders as backup.

 

Me, I like this technology. When was the last time you heard of an electric vehicle blow up, and by the by, don't we all carry fire extinguishers in our trucks. With some of the attitudes expressed here we'll never allow this technology to develop. First time out of the gate I think this truck is pretty impressive.

I have driven manual transmission internal combustion vehicles for around 55 years, recently bought a Tacoma (my third) with automatic transmission for the first time and think it's a God send for the dirt road desert driving I do dally.

 

I think the tech is awesome myself. It’s taken some pretty good engineering to make this work. Just think if everyone gives it a chance and provides feedback whether positive or negative a better product will be developed over time. I mean look at the Tacoma, I love it for sure but does it have everything I want it to have? Heck no. Toyota can’t even put a remote start in these things yet and it doesn’t have half the bells and whistles my Chevy had. But it mine does have a locking diff and it fits nicely down trails whereas my full size Chevy wouldn’t make it. All things get better with time and the tech is here now so why not support it? Let’s see where this thing goes!!

 

Try watching the videos on it. 400+ mile range. Comes with 33 inch tires on it. All the weight is down low. Air bag suspension that can be adjusted on the fly. Built in air compressor. Even if you throw armor on it and it loses 25% range, that is the same as my taco right now. The storage on it is insane. 13K towing capacity. 0-60 in 3 seconds. This thing is a beast and would be just fine for 75% of the people around here.

Unfortunately they made it ugly as hell but....