Ford C-Max Solar Energi..Solar Powered Car..

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Ford plans to take the electric car “off the grid” with a solar-powered people mover concept to be revealed at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The blue oval brand says its C-MAX Solar Energi concept can harness the sun to charge its batteries – rather than plugging it into a power socket – through a high-tech solar panel on its roof.

It says the car has the ability to travel on solar power alone for 75 percent of all trips made by an average driver, which could result in a reduction of greenhouse gas output by four metric tons per annum – the equivalent to what an average US household produces over four months.

The car is an extension of the C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid that is already on sale in the United States, which is powered by a 2.0-litre four cylinder engine with a electric motor for a combined power output of 140kW and an average fuel consumption of 5.4L/100km.
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The addition of the solar panels more than halves its average fuel consumption, with Ford estimating it could drop to as low as 2.5L/100km.

Solar roof panels have been used in a few cars previously such as the radical Fisker Karma electric car, but primarily to support small electrical systems such as the air conditioning system.

Ford’s roof panel, developed by Ford’s official solar energy partner Sun Power, is the first of its kind to directly charge the vehicle’s battery pack and uses a special Fresnel lens – similar in concept to a lighthouse lens - to amplify the sunlight by a factor of eight. Like a magnifying glass, the lens can also track the movement of the sun to, over a full day, draw the equivalent amount of electricity as a four-hour battery charge from a wall socket.

It says it will begin real-world trials of the C-MAX Solar Energi this year in collaboration with Georgia Institute of Technology, which developed the Fresnel lens system.

While the Focus-based C-MAX people mover is not currently on Ford Australia’s radar, the solar technology is clearly transferable to all types of vehicles as Ford says that if all light-duty vehicles in the US were to adopt the system it would reduce its annual greenhouse gas output by approximately 1 billion metric tons.
http://brisbanetimes.drive.com.au/mo...103-308id.html

My Comment ; This will work very well in Australia...Smart engineers at Ford..

[Road_Warrior]

For years I've wondered why car makers who make these hybrids and electric cars don't make better use of that relatively useless space on the roof...finally someone has.

[NX74205]

Fantastic to hear about Ford being innovative. I only wish that this car would make it to Australia.

[GASWAGON]

Great idea and technology no doubt......Just worries me how expensive the panels would be to replace if ever damaged.....Same story as Toyota Hybrid batteries.

[LeadFoot81]

Toyota did it first (in mass production) with the solar panels in the Prius' roof (to power a fan cooling the car's interior)

However, Ford's system is far more impressive (and relevant) well done Fomoco!!

[Mechan1k]

I guess it has come down to PV technology ... it used to be very inefficient ... and you need a fair amount of real-estate to generate decent amounts of power as well.