Self-Sustaining Electric Cars

Imagine being able to drive to work without ever needing to worry about fuel. Never buying gasoline would save nearly two thousand dollars per year (Doggett par. 2). Regular electric cars are able to save a significant amount on travel costs, but they still need to be recharged. This means that more money is spent on monthly electrical bills to supply the car, although electricity bills are much cheaper than gasoline bills. To remedy this, I am proposing a self-sustaining electric car. Using numerous sources of power, I hope to prove or disprove the possibility of a car that needs no outside fuel sources besides the sun. For size and mass specifications, the Tesla Model S will be used. It will not be completely accurate because many modifications to the car will be made, but it will serve as a decent sample. The car itself will depend on three main power sources: solar power, wind power, and kinetic energy recovery, or more commonly known as regenerative braking. The solar panels will cover the top of the car, which is about 105.214 feet squared, or about 9.775 meters squared (Model S). However, the windows cannot have solar panels on them as they would make it impossible for the driver to see out of them. With an estimation, this would leave about 79.447 feet squared, or 7.381 meters squared of usable room.
Therefore, by …show more content…
Instead, two small wind turbines will be placed behind the front grill. The small size of these turbines would cause them to be nearly pointless in a typical open-air environment, but they are placed in the front grill to harness the wind created by driving. Assuming the grill is half of the car’s width, that leaves a diameter of 19.325 inches for the rotors, but because of the low height of the grill, the diameter will be reduced to fifteen inches, or 38.1