Solar windshield reflector

[Rob Whitlatch]

Hey Aptera team!

I was looking at my black car this afternoon sitting in the sun and thinking to myself, “It’s 95° out today. I should probably put my windshield reflector up so my interior isn’t so hot later when I have to go pick up my son.” And that led me to an interesting thought on an accessory for the Aptera!

What would you think about designing, manufacturing, and selling a windshield reflector accessory item that was made up of solar panels?! By my calculations of the area of a normal windshield, we could gain about 150-200 watts of additional charging if the user had a windshield reflector they could put up while the vehicle is not in use and plug into the vehicle (maybe the accessory outlet?). Just throwing that out there as an idea. I know many people who believe in this kind of vehicle and technology would be more than happy to take the 2 minutes to increase the regenerated range by another 10-20% by putting something in the windshield!

Looking forward to any feedback from you guys at Aptera and the community at large!

[Steve Lee]

if this is practical and cost effective, this is a GREAT idea.

[John Malcom]

I believe the engineering is pretty locked in for the first production vehicles. (Well along on Beta – we should hear more later this month on Beta) Sounds like a candidate for the second iteration of Aptera or perhaps a third party product. I would pay for this kind of enhancement, but would not want to hold up the current schedule for engineering and integration/testing for an enhancement that might delay a production ready vehicle by the end of this calendar year.

[Rob Whitlatch]

100% agree with you John. I want mine now haha! I was thinking this as an accessory on a different development track than the vehicle itself. We are aligned on that 🙂

[Oz (It’s Oz, just Oz)]

Wouldn’t that block the dashboard solar panels?

[GLENN ZAJIC]

Yes that would block the dash solar array, but probably increase the output due to more surface area exposed. And also offer a little UV protection for the interior. I want one for both the front and back, then I would not get the full solar package as I would love to only have that back window view blocked when I charge, not when I drive. Either way, I too am excited and will take what is produced and see what naturally will occur in the aftermarket. What we should have though are ports built in which could accept these solar panels.

[Richard Marks]

So I’m new here to forum. With the rear panels is the rear window view completely blocked? Hadn’t thought about rearview mirror .. is there one?

[GLENN ZAJIC]

Much of this has been discussed in the previous forums. Yes the view is completely blocked by full solar on the rear window. Yes, there is a rearview screen, displaying better info than a rearview mirror, but in that location. The camera is mounted high up on the rear window and there is a small spot (where there could have been 3 solar cells) that allows for the camera to see out, and I think maybe the high mounted brake lights. I think you can see this in some of the pictures of the full solar design.

[Paul Evans]

It could be an interesting DIY project. I recall a discussion that said owners could easily replace individual solar cells. It might be possible to build a window insert panel if we knew how they are wired – I’m guessing parallel. Remove one of the dashboard cells and attach the panel you constructed to the now vacant receiving terminal. We would need to know the wattage limits of the receiving terminal(s) and the type of terminal used to connect everything. But watt do I know…..

[Len Nowak Nowak]

I thought the same, but as a minimalist i.e., I don’t like carrying around flexible panels and stuff… but surely could appeal to many.

Im my mind, companies like Go Sun make smaller versions of this already like…

https://gosun.co/products/solarpanel-30

… so that could be fashioned into something like that.

My idea was to have a slide out version ( not mobile) that came out of the roof liner. Partially pulled out , maybe serving as our sun-visor, which Aptera has yet to show…. Perhaps fully drawn connecting to the edge of the dash, which would not block the dash solar cells???

BTW You probably know the Aptera std solar array powers a ventilation system exhausting hot air, when parked in the sun, to try to keep the interior temperature close to the outside temperature so ….less energy would be needed for the AC operation.

[Paul Evans]

Len, on reducing energy, I plan to have UV filtering film installed on the door windows. I’d put them on the front window, too, but that would reduce the effectiveness of the solar panels on the dash.

[John Voules]

This for me is a far better idea than putting solar array on the inside of the vehicle’s dash. Aside from heating up the interior, there would be the suns deteriorating effect on all other materials. I have always tried to protect my vehicle and at the same time keeping it cooler by using a windshield screen. My thoughts at this point is to try and customize my windshield sun shield to cover everything but my solar arrays.

[John Belmonte]

I hope there is some input on the car for supplemental charging. (Beyond stable DC, supporting direct connection from external solar panels would obviously be nice.)

You could get creative with it, like have the passenger exercise with a pedal-powered generator to make extra juice for the journey…