Engineering news
Ford Motor Company has unveiled a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that uses solar panels on the roof to recharge itself.
The C-Max Solar Energi concept car is estimated to have a total range of up to 620 miles, including up to 21 electric-only miles.
The car manufacturer turned to researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology for a way to amplify the sunlight in order to make a hybrid feasible for daily use. The researchers came up with a static solar concentrator, an acrylic Fresnel lens in the form of a standalone canopy that covers the car and directs sunlight to the solar cells, boosting the impact of the sunlight by a factor of eight.
In a promotional video, Mike Tinskey, director of vehicle electrification and infrastructure at Ford, explained: “As the sun traverses the sky from east to west, the vehicle will essentially [automatically] move in the opposite direction and always keep that solar energy concentrated on the roof of the vehicle.”
The patent-pending system can draw enough power from the sun to equal 8 kW or a four-hour battery charge, Ford claimed.
SunPower, which has been Ford's solar partner since 2011, has designed the solar cells for the roof of the car. Zach Campeau of SunPower explained that its cells have all the metal components at the back to form the foundational support. This means it can make the silicon much thinner, meaning that it can flex a little bit and match the curved surface of the car.
“They have a much higher power density than conventional cells: that means out of the same space-constrained area we can harvest 50% more energy,” he said.
The C-Max Solar Energi is to be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which starts next week. It will then be tested by Ford and Georgia Tech to determine whether the concept is feasible as a production car.