Rivian Solar Charging

[jakeinslc]

Hey Everyone,

Due to health issues, it has been a LONG, LONG time since I posted here.

I'd really like to take my R1T to Mexico sooner rather than later.

Is there any news on Rivian solar chargers (think rollout frunk, cab, and bed/tailgate panels), so that I don't have to worry.

Thanks,

Jake

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[Florida Panhandler]

Sorry to disappoint but car roof-sized solar arrays are little more than a joke. i Have a home solar array capable of 7.6kw inverter output that can provide enough to charge 12 miles or so per hour. my 9.1kw worth solar panels cover most of my southern roof. Car-sized solar can never have enough surface area for any appreciable charging. The only real positive I can imagine would be if you park long term parking at an airport at a regular basis in order to keep the battery up And possible add a few miles during a week’s time.

 

[lefkonj]

Vehicle based solar just isn't there right now. I would check for chargers in the Mexico region you are heading too. I haven't looked at all down there but never know.

 

[Rivtony]

I'm trying to plan a trip to Baja and the only thing I've seen so far are very few destination chargers.

 

[LivingInKaos]

Better off throwing a ~15kw propane generator in the bed with a couple 100lb tanks and a 48amp charger. ( I have a rescue trailer setup with a 24kw gen and two 48a chargers on it )

 

[majorfriend]

Sorry to disappoint but car roof-sized solar arrays are little more than a joke. i Have a home solar array capable of 7.6kw inverter output that can provide enough to charge 12 miles or so per hour. my 9.1kw worth solar panels cover most of my southern roof. Car-sized solar can never have enough surface area for any appreciable charging. The only real positive I can imagine would be if you park long term parking at an airport at a regular basis in order to keep the battery up And possible add a few miles during a week’s time.

This is always the answer, but I think there's a market here for something that isn't roof based, but mobile (or even something that is dead simple to install at home).

I'd love a solution that can charge at ~5mi/hr. At 2mi/kWhr you'd need 2.5kW of Solar. Maybe make it 3 to account for some losses.

There are tons of 400watt panels out there and some larger than that that are are about 4ftx6ft.

So you'd need 8 of these panels. That could easily fit in the bed with gate down, or in the back of an R1S.
It would take up a lot of space, but it's doable. Then you just need some sort of frame and way to get that power to the trick. You wouldn't need an inverter since it would already be DC, but I assume you'd need to "clean" the energy somehow (I'm no electrical engineer).

A solution like this could give you up to about 70 miles of range a day depending on sun conditions.

I could build my own thing I'm sure, but I'd really like something simple and out of the box.

Seems like it could be done for around $5k. It could also be eligible for a tax credit.

Seems ideal from an energy independence standpoint, but also could be nice for some camping scenarios.

Maybe something like this exists that I don't know about?

 

[LivingInKaos]

This is always the answer, but I think there's a market here for something that isn't roof based, but mobile (or even something that is dead simple to install at home).

I'd love a solution that can charge at ~5mi/hr. At 2mi/kWhr you'd need 2.5kW of Solar. Maybe make it 3 to account for some losses.

There are tons of 400watt panels out there and some larger than that that are are about 4ftx6ft.

So you'd need 8 of these panels. That could easily fit in the bed with gate down, or in the back of an R1S.
It would take up a lot of space, but it's doable. Then you just need some sort of frame and way to get that power to the trick. You wouldn't need an inverter since it would already be DC, but I assume you'd need to "clean" the energy somehow (I'm no electrical engineer).

A solution like this could give you up to about 70 miles of range a day depending on sun conditions.

I could build my own thing I'm sure, but I'd really like something simple and out of the box.

Seems like it could be done for around $5k. It could also be eligible for a tax credit.

Seems ideal from an energy independence standpoint, but also could be nice for some camping scenarios.

Maybe something like this exists that I don't know about?

Early on in '22, I had designed an 8 panel folding setup that would set on the bedrails. I never actually built it because, in the end, if you were out in the middle of nowhere, most would have an RTT on board and this would just get complicated. Putting it in the bed for assembly in the field would not be a fun thing imo. Putting it on a trailer, you could make more capacity, but then you are pulling a trailer and killing your range. Kind of a defeating endeavor. It would take a long while to recover the costs too, likely longer than the life of the vehicle.

 

[jakeinslc]

Great feedback from everyone thus far. I too think there is a market for a 3rd party manufacturer to come up with something. When Rivian has a motto like "Go off the beaten path", then they must expect their customers to do just that.

 

[jakeinslc]

This is always the answer, but I think there's a market here for something that isn't roof based, but mobile (or even something that is dead simple to install at home).

I'd love a solution that can charge at ~5mi/hr. At 2mi/kWhr you'd need 2.5kW of Solar. Maybe make it 3 to account for some losses.

There are tons of 400watt panels out there and some larger than that that are are about 4ftx6ft.

So you'd need 8 of these panels. That could easily fit in the bed with gate down, or in the back of an R1S.
It would take up a lot of space, but it's doable. Then you just need some sort of frame and way to get that power to the trick. You wouldn't need an inverter since it would already be DC, but I assume you'd need to "clean" the energy somehow (I'm no electrical engineer).

A solution like this could give you up to about 70 miles of range a day depending on sun conditions.

I could build my own thing I'm sure, but I'd really like something simple and out of the box.

Seems like it could be done for around $5k. It could also be eligible for a tax credit.

Seems ideal from an energy independence standpoint, but also could be nice for some camping scenarios.

Maybe something like this exists that I don't know about?

70 miles per day just wouldn't cut the muster for me.

I'd want something that would keep the truck fairly well charged.

Or, if necessary, just take a break every few days and let the batteries top off from 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

It wouldn't be too hard to make sure that the panels were aimed directly at the sun every few days.

Help make this a reality!!

Time to get busy living, or get busy dyin, as Morgan Freeman said in Shawshank Redemption.

 

[racekarl]

Nobody remembers DC Solar?

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/06/dc-solar-power-ponzi-scheme-scandal/673782/

There are still a bunch of them floating around as they were auctioned off as part of the bankruptcy.

 

[CaptainMRSir]

Hey Everyone,

Due to health issues, it has been a LONG, LONG time since I posted here.

I'd really like to take my R1T to Mexico sooner rather than later.

Is there any news on Rivian solar chargers (think rollout frunk, cab, and bed/tailgate panels), so that I don't have to worry.

Thanks,

Jake

We travel to the Baja quite often and disappointed in lack of charging infrasructure. Plugshare notes a few Tesla Fast Chargers, but not enough at that, plus not sure these chargers would accept non-Teslas. I'd love to see the concept you're proposing, but sounds like it's a ways off

 

[Mathme]

I have 23 400w solar panels on my roof, each one is about 3' x 6'. Yesterday was a completely cloudless day and my system made 48.9kWh throughout the entire day. So that's an average of 2.13kWh per panel per day.

Solar on a car won't do more than a trickle charge.

 

[eskudo12791]

I have 23 400w solar panels on my roof, each one is about 3' x 6'. Yesterday was a completely cloudless day and my system made 48.9kWh throughout the entire day. So that's an average of 2.13kWh per panel per day.

Solar on a car won't do more than a trickle charge.

with the weak 12v systemt would be a good way to keep them charged

 

[edman007]

You can do it, but it's not going to be cheap, cost effective, or small. If you actually wanted to do this, I'd get regular panels, some off grid capable inverter, and an EVSE that can talk to it to track output. A battery would make this work better. So reasonably, I'd say a 4.8kW array, with 1 powerwall. In Mexico, it's probably going to actually get you something like 25-30kWh/day, or about 60-70mi/day.

Now the problem is this much stuff completly fills the bed of the R1T, tailgate must be down to store, it stacks above the tonneau cover (it's going to stack a little over 20 inches in height, and basically take the whole bed in all dimensions). With all the equipment it's going to come in over 1000lbs, and to use it you'll need to unpack it (I recommend an awning style setup, it's going to be 4x5.5m when setup, which is WAY bigger than just you ). Expect it to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $10-20k to build (depending on options, mostly battery). It's not a small effort to design this to fit in the bed of the R1T and fold out (though I guess if the plan is to just wire it up and lay the panels on the ground it's not too bad). But it's not easy to deploy, as I said, you're looking at over 1000lbs of hardware.

 

[Jiji]

Sorry but I think this is a poor use case for an EV using current technology. And these are using best case numbers which won’t generate sufficient power when cloudy or in the winter months.

Renting an ICE vehicle for the trip or bringing a generator seems like the simplest options to play all day and charge all night.

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