SOLAR POWERED ELECTRIC VEHICLES

SOLAR POWERED ELECTRIC VEHICLES

My dear countrymen, a few years ago, there was an Israeli company called Solar8 that sold what they presented as purely solar vehicles, including a line of buses and motorbikes. As far as I know, they were doing well, and as a matter of fact, they were able to sell a few units to MERALCO. Just to prove that they had a good product, many of their buses are still running up to now. Looking back, I now realize that what they were really selling was a line of battery powered vehicles, recharged by both the sun and the power grid. That said, could those units be called electric vehicles (EVs)?

According to Microsoft Copilot, “a solar vehicle is a type of electric vehicle that is powered primarily by solar energy. It utilizes photovoltaic cells, usually integrated into the vehicle's exterior (like the roof or hood), to convert sunlight into electricity. This electricity is then used to charge the vehicle's battery, which powers the electric motor”. It is therefore very clear that a solar vehicle is not an EV, because unlike an EV, it is primarily powered by sunlight. But could it be that we are just dealing with a play of words here?

As of now, what is generally known as EVs are powered exclusively by electric power from the grid, by way of recharging, hence the use of charging stations. It is however possible that the charging stations could be powered by solar panels, but that does not make the car itself a solar vehicle. Except for a few prototype models like DLSU’s “Sinag” car, there are no purely solar vehicles in the market. That said, I think we can still decide this early which direction we should take.

I think that all things considered, we should go towards the direction of where Solar8 stopped. What do I mean by that? I think Solar8 was an EV that was powered by both the sun and a charging station. Yes, it had batteries, but don’t all EVs have batteries also? But if we adopt the design of Solar8, what should we call the vehicle? To avoid any confusion, I think that we should just call it an EV, because it uses a charging station powered by the grid to recharge its batteries. Yes, it could still be called an EV, even if its batteries could also be charged by the sun, by using solar panels.

My dear countrymen, I really believe that as a country, we now have an opportunity to revive our car manufacturing industry, but this time with electric motors, and no longer with gasoline or diesel engines. Again, it might just be a play of words, but an EV is just any car that is run by an electric motor. In the past, we failed to make our own cars because we were not able to gather the political will to build our own engines. That challenge is behind now, because I believe that we could now build our own electric motors. So, shall we, do it? shall be build our own solar powered EVs? Your friend, IKE SENERES/12-07-24/visit my blog senseneres.blogspot.com

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