Solar Panel Electric Cars

Andre Cunningham, Hassan Zia, Alan Agarunov, Kobe Saquicela

City College of New York

Our proposed innovation is to create a solar powered electric car. The inspiration behind the idea is to take less focus off of oil and put more focus into global warming. The car will be based off of a Tesla Model S. We plan to form a partnership with Tesla so they can supply us with the vehicles. The ability to charge the car will stay as solar panels are not 100% reliable for a source of energy. The total price to create one solar powered car will cost us $78,592. For the  workforce, we will pay 20 people on the installation team an hourly pay of $25.50 and 5 people on the marketing team an hourly pay of $31.25. Our experience will be a 4 year degree is solar engineering if on the installation team and a 4 year degree in marketing. Our future plans are to build our company up and expand into other continents.

The Problem:

Earth is not heading in a good direction as global warming is causing the Earth to heat up to high temperatures. Also, non-renewable resources are being used faster than ever and we are on a quick pace to use it all up. Fossil fuels are one of these non-renewable sources being used rapidly. With electric cars, we can help slow down this process but many people are not a fan of electric cars due to the availability of charging stations and this is where solar panels come into play. Using solar panels on electric cars can help create longer trips and another way to charge the battery quickly.

Our Purpose

Our goal is very simple. We want to provide a new way of driving electric cars. The downside to electric cars is that they must be charged. Charging them can be inconvenient at times. My solution to this problem is having a solar panel placed on these cars. This will allow the car to charge and store solar energy when the electrical energy runs out. The problem with solar panels is that they are not good looking. Many people buy cars to show a sign of wealth and power. Having a solar panel installed on the top of a car may cause the car to not look as good. By making a nice solar panel design and fitting it on to the cars, we can have solar energy and a better-looking car. By utilizing solar energy and placing them on cars, a large portion of air pollution will be decreased.

Background of Global Warming

Global warming has been a topic on scientists minds since the mid 20th century. We first realized this and gave it the name “the greenhouse effect.” This is when the Earth traps heat causing the Earth to warm up as a whole. Water vapor, nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide are the main greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere. Global Warming is still a continuing problem today but many people ignore it so the future has to worry. Now it has gotten to a point where scientist are considering if the Earth will live past the year 2050.

Blueprints

Above shows the blueprint of the Tesla Model S, car we are basing off of.

Above shows the blueprint of the E20/435 solar panel being placed on the car

How Much Does it All Cost?

For each car, the price comes out to be $78,592. This counts for the Tesla Model S itself ($76,000 according to retail), the E20/435 solar panel from SolarPower ($2,052) and the extra wiring ($540 according to the wiring need for solar panels on a house). For marketing, we plan to spend a total of $255,500. Local ads in 25 states for $37,500, ads around social media (twitter, facebook and instagram) for $198,000 and a limit of $20,000 on YouTube. For our workforce, an hourly pay of $31.25 for the marketing team and an hourly pay of $25.50 for the installation team.

Materials Needed

The materials needed for this innovation are pretty simple. The car itself will be supplied by Tesla. We would get the wiring and solar panel from the company SolarPower which supplies the E20/435 model. The only thing we would have to search for is the human workforce we plan to hire.

The Math Behind It

The car consumes 0.35 kWh (kiloWatt hour) per mile driven. The rest of the systems of the car (highly computerized car) will use an additional 0.2 kWh. The batteries in the car can hold a total of 80 kWh.This solar panel produces around 915 watt hours or 0.915 kilowatt hours. This means in a 24 hour time period, the solar panel will produce 21.96 kilowatt hours for the battery, which is 27.45% of the total charge the batteries can hold.The solar panels can take the normal 700 mile trip and extend it by an extra 192.15 miles. Those extra miles can help someone reach their destination quicker knowing they do not need to look for a charging station.

Labor Power and Time

Our plan is to hire 5 people for the marketing team and around 20 people for the installation team. We want to start off small at first and begin to expand and grow if sales seem high. Since the only requirement is a 4 year degree, either in solar engineering or marketing, we will be hiring people based off of previous experience most likely internships and gpa received in college. Anybody with a previous job in whatever field will most like be at the top of the priority over others.

Conclusion/Future plans

We hope that people accept our idea and push more attention towards global warming because without the attention there will not be a habitable place for future generations. If sales of our car go well, we plan to build factories in North America and Asia, two continents where global warming is very present, especially with fossil fuels. We also plan to work with cheaper models or create our own so our solar powered electric car can become affordable for everyone.

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