Electric cars that don't need to stop charging all year round?

In recent years, the development of solar electric vehicles in Japan has gradually reached a commercial level, and many models with good performance have been launched. In July of this year, Japan also published an electric vehicle (experimental vehicle) that may only be driven by solar panels on the body throughout the year. Years of research is another milestone.

The solar car is not built overnight, it relies on years of industry-government-academic cooperation

Speaking of this car, it was jointly developed by Japan's National Research and Development Corporation "New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization" (NEDO) and SHARP. They issued a press release in July, using the world's highest level of high-efficiency solar cell modules (conversion efficiency of 31.17%) and the same level of battery modules (cell) for design. The solar panels on the experimental electric vehicle can have a capacity of more than 1 kilowatt. Although the distance traveled by a car and the utilization mode of the car are different, after trial and calculation, it is possible for this car to not be charged from an external power source throughout the year!

Among them, this solar cell with a conversion efficiency of more than 30% originates from the "Solar Photovoltaic Development Strategy" planned by NEDO in 2014. At that time, in order to reduce the cost of power generation, the research and development of high-performance solar cells was launched. I did not expect that after many years, this battery made great contributions.

It has to be said that the reason why the research on solar electric vehicles can reach this stage really depends on the previous planning of the industry, government and academia. In 2016, NEDO gathered people of insight from the industry and academia to form a "Review Committee for Vehicles Equipped with Solar Power Generation Systems" to investigate and review energy and environmental issues in the transportation field. inside the committee.

Create the most efficient solar car technology and automobile manufacturers work together

This time, in order to test the possibility of vehicles equipped with solar panels, Sharp cooperated with Nissan to make models specially designed for electric vehicles, making full use of the surface area to lay solar panels with a thickness of only 0.03 mm. The capacity of the entire device reaches more than 1 kilowatt.

In July last year, NEDO also conducted a similar experimental study, using high-performance solar panels made by Sharp that can be completely adhered to the surface of the car (specially laid on the hood, roof and rear door), and Toyota (TOYOTA) A revamped Prius plug-in gas-electric hybrid turned out to have a unit capacity of 860 watts, which is 4.8 times that of a commercial vehicle of the same name (the new Prius) equipped with solar panels! It's not enough to go without charging for an entire year, but it's enough to reduce the number of charging times.

TOYOTA's new Prius equipped with solar panels (with a capacity of 180 watts), launched in Japan in 2016, is the world's first truly mass-produced solar electric vehicle. Prior to this, although the Prius also offered solar panels as an option, the electricity was only used for ventilation rather than driving.

It is clear that public-private cooperation plays a key role in the development of solar electric vehicles in Japan. Next, NEDO also expects to provide the driving data of these experimental electric vehicles made by Nissan and Toyota to the IEA PVPS task17 (photovoltaic survey work in the transportation sector) hosted by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The development and promotion of solar electric vehicles will bring great benefits.