I’m only half kidding. I’m a bit of a prepper and I have lots of powerbanks and devices that charge from USB but besides idling my truck I really had no other way to charge any of them in case of a long-term power outage which seemed a bit of an oversight on my part.

Not like this solves the issue. 30 watts (under ideal conditions) isn’t much but it’s a start.

  • busted_Anoose@aussie.zone
    83·
    16 hours ago

    You can buy a 100ah battery and 200w solar blanket for fairly cheap. its not a terrible idea to be a little bit prepped. Saw a car on youtube the other day that was 8k, had 10kwh battery, range of 150k and had a retractable roof solar panel that gives the car 55km a day of solar generation. perfect for the apocalype. cruise around the wastelands in style.

    • Jako302@feddit.org
      3·
      12 hours ago

      had 10kwh battery, range of 150k

      That doesn’t really math out, its like 3 times the efficiency that car manufacturers normally give, and they already assume optimal conditions.

      That sounds more like a beach buggy with a battery bolted to the back and a top speed of 40 on an even road.

      • beanburger@lemmy.world
        5·
        12 hours ago

        It is the Solarky SunV, it has an aluminum frame and plastic panels. It probably wouldn’t pass safety inspections in EU/US and is really designed as a step up from motor bikes in places like Thailand and where I live in Mexico. I think the safety regulations and requirements for people in sprawl cities like the US are overkill for most of the rest of the world. I’ve had people on lemmy tell me that 200 km range isn’t enough but that is around how much I drive in a week lol. I never need it to go highway speeds, there are no highways thru my city only connecting to the next and for that I’d prefer the bus. For puttering around to my friends house or to grab something from the store I can’t walk to it would be perfect. I have a BYD Dolphin now.

        • Wispy2891@lemmy.world
          1·
          10 hours ago

          It can pass EU safety if apply for a L6/L7 vehicle category

          But from the website it looks like vaporware…

          • beanburger@lemmy.world
            1·
            9 hours ago

            I don’t really know anything about the EU other than they have a lot of regulations. I’ll probably never go there.

            These cars exist and have been sold in Thailand and Indonesia for the past few months, there are tons of videos about them on Youtube. Most people on Lemmy live in places where Chinese EVs are illegal and have no idea what we have available now. These are just typical cheap EVs with a retractable panel on top.