I apologise for my recent lengthy rants about EVs, batteries and power grids. This is somewhat off topic, but as Mercedes is such a big part of discussions involving BrainChip, as well as EVs probably being a huge driver for Akida adoption (if only in the sensors), I thought it may be ok to dig a little deeper. For those who aren’t interested, you can easily scroll on by.
Yes I was suitably impressed when I first saw the Lightyear. There’s a good YouTube clip also—and in it they even mention the Mercedes EQXX. The two cars do look very similar!
I love it how they get pulled over by the police whilst making the YouTube clip.
Solar panels charging the main drive battery, combined with a super efficient drive train, very well could be the solution we need, and maybe Mercedes can follow suit and use their solar panels to charge the main battery pack. I REALLY like the idea of charging your EV from sunlight and not relying on the archaic power grid to charge it.
Being able to sell EVs to parts of the world that have no EV charging infrastructure at all, is a VERY powerful sales point.
I like their smaller battery pack. As I’ve said before, for normal family commute usage, range is NOT the most important metric for an EV. Having a battery that can handle the typical daily/weekly usage (plus contingencies) is what designers should be concentrating on. The average car is parked 95% of the time after all. It may as well be charging at the same time. Reducing the weight of the batteries is IMHO a critical consideration.
Mercedes saved weight by having their solar panels charge only the 12V system. Maybe they could reduce some weight out of their massive 100kWh battery pack and add the required circuitry to charge it from solar. Now that, IMHO, would be a positive step. But Mercedes seem hell-bent on making range records. It may even be a fixation of theirs.
One has to be impressed by the theoretical, but more realistic, claim of 12km of range, harvested from the Lightyear’s 5m2 of solar panels, in an hour of sunlight. Their solar panels do charge the main battery pack, and under certain driving conditions (like local commutes only, combined with long stints parked in direct sunlight) their claim of months between charges could conceivably be possible. With their car recharging at the theoretical max of 1kW per hour.
I do believe their solar charging ability is somewhat exaggerated though, but their claims do make for convincing marketing.
12km extra range per hour equates to approx 1kWh (using their stated best figures of 725km from their 60kWh pack) which is quite a stretch for that size Solar panel to generate. The best solar panels on the market at the moment generate 425W, under ideal light, including ideal angle of incidence, 5m2 of the industry best 425W panels (at ~1.9m2 each) will just achieve that stated generation.
Hence, although probably full of marketing hyperbole, their stated claims of months between charges is believable, and is absolutely wonderful!
Another consideration for drive efficiency is to reduce the wasted energy that is dissipated in a differential. And as I suggested in my 1985 thesis, place small electric motors at each wheel and use smarts (this is where Akida can help) to control wheel slip and assist steering. I have shared this in a previous post though, so I apologise again for rehashing old stuff. A drive on each wheel (or maybe just two of them) may well happen one day, and yes I am aware that some developers are already experimenting with this, with great success.
If I forked out the £250k price tag for a Lightyear I’d go the extra yard and get “BUZZ” number plates.
