SOLAR POWER CARS FOR THE MASSES! CAN THIS REALLY BE TRUE?

With the recent hike in household energy costs and the wallet splitting costs at the fuel pump, wouldn´t it be good if you could reduce the costs of both all at once? Well now you can with a solar PV system.

When we talk about solar powered cars we think of a car that has a huge solar panel on the roof and can only go out in the daylight. However this is not the case, the new Nissan Leaf is an ordinary electric car for the masses. You can charge the battery by plugging it in to your mains electricity and when fully charged can expect around 100 miles travel. Its a fantastic little car for using to travel to work and around the town and it doesn´t look much different to any other car on the road.

However Here is the impressive bit! If you have a Solar PV system on your house, the Nissan Leaf can be charged up for free through your solar panels giving you a full charge and around 100 miles for the cost of nothing!!  Watch this video from the programme Fully Charged explaining on how it can be done!!

The Car

The car is driven by a 90kW (120hp) electric motor, which gains its power from a 345V, 24kWh, air-cooled battery pack, consisting of 48 flat, netbook-sized modules, each containing four lithium-ion cells.

The battery pack, designed jointly by NEC and Nissan, is charged via the mains using the Leaf's 3.3kW on-board battery charger -- located adjacent to the battery pack in the rear -- or via an external 440V quick charger. It can also be trickle-charged by the Leaf's regenerative braking system, which converts the kinetic energy achieved under braking to electrical energy.