High-end Electric Vehicles and some marques you’ve never heard of

Some EV’s are going to be hyper-expensive and not for the average motorist. The good news is that if you can afford a supercar … you can still power your new luxury EV with a solar PV array that probably costs less than a year of high-octane petrol.

There is an added bonus too … if you select the right solar canopy for your motor … then when the grid goes down you will have the motorways all to yourself.

The new Lightyear 0 can take you 550km on a single charge – which isn’t bad … but it’s not great either for a €250,000 car. If you want to travel an actual light year in your Lightyear 0, it will take over 17 billion charge cycles, so you may prefer something with a bigger battery.

Certainly we have never heard of manufacturers like Genesis, Lightyear, Lucid or Polestar – which are producing EV’s from €50,000 all the way up to €250,000. In the table below, we have also selected a few models from luxury car makers Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche for comparison.

Some luxury EV’s, their range and energy consumption

	Battery Size (kWh)	Range (km)	Energy Consumption (Wh/km)
Audi e-tron GT RS	85 kWh	405 km	210 Wh/km
BMW i7 xDrive 60	101.7 kWh	510 km	199 Wh/km
Lightyear 0	60 kWh	550 km	109 Wh/km
Lucid Air Touring	88 kWh	550 km	160 Wh/km
Mercedes EQS 580 4Matic	107.8 kWh	605 km	178 Wh/km
Porsche Taycan Turbo S	83.7 kWh	400 km	209 Wh/km

Table 5 High-end EV’s and their Energy Consumption Data

How much solar PV will fuel your luxury EV?

	x Annual Mileage (km)	Annual Energy Consumption (kWh)	Equivalent Solar PV (kWp)
Audi e-tron GT RS	18,000 km	3,780 kWh	< 4 kWp
BMW i7 xDrive 60	18,000 km	3,582 kWh	< 4 kWp
Lightyear 0	18,000 km	1,962 kWh	< 2 kWp
Lucid Air Touring	18,000 km	2,880 kWh	< 3 kWp
Mercedes EQS 580 4Matic	18,000 km	3,204 kWh	< 4 kWp
Porsche Taycan Turbo S	18,000 km	3,762 kWh	< 4 kWp

Table 6 How much solar PV to fuel your high-end EV

New EV’s from Genesis, Lightyear, Lucid, Polestar

While we may never have heard of Genesis, Lightyear, Lucid or Polestar before, there are other manufacturers like XPENG, Sono, Aiways and JAC producing more affordable EV’s for the general consumer. Lots of foreign manufacturers are coming to compete with native European marques.

The Lightyear 0 has perhaps the most efficient propulsion system at 109 Wh/km, and can go from 0-100 kph in 10 seconds. It does seem a bit drab and pointless to put such a lacklustre propulsion system in a €250,000 car.

Our postman can do 0-100 kph in 10 seconds … AND delivers parcels too.

If you’d like a bespoke 4 kWp solar canopy for your luxury EV, please Contact Us today! We’d love to help!