Carguide Blog

@datpimpinboy – You may not think that “this is a good looking car” if it didn’t reduce energy consumption. Is it possible that it’s function has influenced your opinion?
In any case, I don’t think that a car needs to look like a kitchen appliance. There are many beautiful aerodynamic designs, but the Leaf is not a shining example of form following function.

@logansGT to me this is a good looking car. This car is just made like this “because”, the design is made to create the best aerodynamics thus reducing energy consumption. You cant expect Nissan to do magic. It was either to do the nice car you want, or get better miles per charge.

Lastly, 15 years ago, they didn’t have this battery technology, so they had to use batteries weighing 8-11 times more in weight and took up a lot of space. These new batteries are only the fraction in weight, much more efficient, durable,can handle more diverse charging.. Technically you could double (or triple) the battery capacity, so you could possible drive a week without sunlight.. That battery can pick up the slack and the solar cells can charge whenever there is just a bit of sunlight.

Even on cloudy/rainy days, there is some charge (just at a lower current/wattage output) with solar cells.. Plus, most only commute 20-50 miles a day.. If you think about it, most only drive their cars about 10% of the day, so while the car is just sitting, it shouldn’t take but a fraction of the power from Solar Cells, compared to cars that ran 1,000 miles cont with solar cells 15 years ago. So we have 10 times more charging time (power input) per hour of needed output.
Also, solar cells

Electric cars can only take you 50 miles down the highway then you got to head back. Do you really need an expensive EV car to do that? A $500 beater could accomplish that distance and you would have $29,500 in you pocket for fuel and repairs.

@scott231us what if its a cloudy/rainy day? wouldnt the solar power not work?

Why not add solar cells to all these electric cars??? 15 years ago cars we running 1000 miles cont.. However since then, both solar cells and battery technology have become much more efficient and can produce 4-10 times the power in the same space and weight of solar cells and batteries 15 years ago.. Even when it’s cloudy, solar cells can help extend or charge the batteries.. We rarely drive beyond miles, so the batteries could fully charge back while we’re at work, shopping, or whatever.