A Tesla owner thinks that he has devised a novel way to keep his car charged at all times so that he never runs out of battery, but it’s not exactly a small or easy solution. Here's his YouTube video explaining his master plan:
As you can see, he’s managed to mount a gigantic solar panel onto the back of a trailer that he then drags around behind the car, charging it up as it goes.
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OK, it’s not exactly the most elegant solution, but it might help to keep the car rolling along when others would have to stop for a few hours to get it charged up.
This ingenious stopgap solution - until Tesla brings out cars that can either last longer or charge themselves up as they go - was created by YouTuber and electric vehicle owner ItsYeBoi.
Obviously, he wants the battery in his Tesla to last forever, so he decided to set about creating a way for that to happen.
To start with, he got hold of a huge solar panel - which can’t have come cheaply - and stuck it on the back of a big-ass trailer to drag around behind his car.
Now, you’d think that dragging something large and heavy behind the car would only serve to use up more of the battery power and shorten the range of the car, but if it charged it up at a quicker rate than the extra weight depleted it, the idea would be worthwhile.
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In the end, the contraption would take 40 hours to charge in total, but you have to admire the willingness to try something a bit different.
It does work, after all.
Admittedly slowly, but it does work.
Explaining his plan, ItsYeBoi explained: "So what we are going to do is get a trailer to attach the solar panels to the trailer.
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“But we got to make sure they're angled toward the Sun so we can maximise solar input.
“Is that a thing? I don't know.”
It is, yes.
Pointing them downwards isn’t going to work, is it?
He continued: "Then we are going to attach the trailer to the Tesla.
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“Charge the Tesla and create the world's first solar trailer for Tesla charging."
OK, so just right now it’s not going to be viable, given the weight and size of the trailer and how long it actually takes to charge, but the key takeaway here is that he could charge his Tesla whilst driving around.
It must be something that Elon Musk and the boffins at Tesla have looked into, and could - in an amusing and roundabout way - be the first glimpse of what the future of electric cars holds.
Let’s just hope it’s a bit quicker and less cumbersome than this first ad-hoc prototype.
Topics: YouTube, Cars, Tesla, Elon Musk, Technology