The 3 miles/day means 0.1 gallon of gasoline for a 30 mpg vehicle, and it means 0.3 dollar/day gain using $3/gallon gas.
If your project costs $3,000, you'll require 10,000 days for its depreciation.
As everybody wrote, I also think your project is not practical.

Ken@Japan

 

While I agree from a cost standpoint putting solar on a vehicle is not practical, there are thin flexible panels that can decrease the weight /aerodynamic problem. They are very expensive and would have to be custom made for your application, but they might work.

Powerfilm

 

The issue isn't so much the frontal area, as the drag coefficient. Hanging something on a roof rack really generates turbulence. If you could mount the PV cells flush with the surface, then thats a much better situation. But really, its much more practical to leave the panels in your parking spot.

The simplest way to improve fuel economy or performance of any car is to reduce weight. Amory Lovins discussed that at a lecture I heard last week. Reminds me of my old race car; we ditched about 400 lbs of seats, carpets, A/C, stereo, glass, spare tire, etc.

Which leads to a question which I am too lazy to find out right now. What type of 12V battery does the FEH have, and what does it need to do (Amp-hrs, CCA)? My race car had 12lb motorcycle battery in place of a 38lb car battery and it always fired up fine. Of course, no stereo, no A/C. That was 1% performance gain, almost free.

Here's a discussion about adding PV to cars
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/elect...ered-cars.html

 

ken:

LOL 3$ a gallon gas. I wish I paid 3 a gallon. I'd sign a long term contract to buy 3 dollar a gallon gasoline if I could!

2006 base escape 18k?
new loaded hybrid in 2006 32k

-14,000 dollars buys a lot of 3 dollar fuel... Apx 85 thousand miles worth of pavement with a in a 4 cyl base escape getting 18 mpg!
-or 7 years woth of 3 dollar fuel for the 12 k/year driver.
-That's longer than the average person owns a car/truck for.
- But you still need to compare to the hybrid, and that truck you own at 30 mpg, you had to put $8,500 of 3 dollar fuel into your $32K hybrid truck for those 85k miles. So you didn't really break even yet.
- if you do the math you'll find the break even point to be close to 150K miles.
- Or for the 12K/year driver just short of 13 years of ownership.
-That has you driving your new 2007 for escape hybrid in 2020 to break even.

Tell me you bought the truck so you could save money

 

kermit thank you for the website, very interesting discussion. Weight/gravity and air resitance are exponential to a liniar increase in speed, so the faster you go the more effort is needed to keep you moving. On a racecar that 12 pounds are huge especially when cornering and centrifugal forces increase the tire patch size...

I'm looking to do flush or near flush mount to the roof.

 

"2006 base escape 18k?
new loaded hybrid in 2006 32k

-14,000 dollars buys a lot of 3 dollar fuel."

2008 Escape/Tribute Hybrid FWD sell for under $24k in Nor Cal. A base 4-cyl is around $16-17k. I just bought a 4WD FEH, well-equipped (most goodies except sunroof & nav) for under $27k.

 

I don't want to start a new thread for this and I know it's slightly OT but I wanted to go over my hybrid premium payback scenario based on today's prices and my expected annual travel of 20,000 miles. I'll use $3/gal as the yearly average for regular unleaded although I think that is going to be a low number as my last fill up was $3.29/gal:

'08 FWD FEH Base Price (as of today) - $26,505
'08 FWD XLT Escape V6 (as of today) - $22,305

Difference: $4200

Credits*:
Federal Tax Credit: $3000
State Tax Credit : $ 600 (%20 of Federal in SC)*
Insurance Premium reduction on entire policy due to hybrid ownership (10%)**: $167
Extended Oil change interval savings (~$50 per, 10,000mi FEH vs 5000mi Escape): $100

Remaining Difference:
$333 (or 111 gal)

In my 08 FWD FEH, over the past 10,000 miles, I recorded an average of 32MPG (dead on the EPA estimation) so I'll take that to mean that my driving style/cycle is in line with the EPA test cycle and use the EPA numbers across the board.

The XLT V6 has a EPA combined rating of 20MPG. Using the 20,000 miles @ $3/gal numbers, I would spend $3000 in gas. With the FEH getting 32MPG, I'll spend $1875.

Annual Gas spending:
XLT: $3000
FEH: $1875
-------------

Annual FEH Gas Savings:
$1125


All I needed to save in gas for break even was $333 (from above), therefore; I'll come out $792 ahead for the year.

*I know there are those out there that won't get the Federal or state credits. I strongly suggest you consult a tax professional (and/or do extensive research) before you count on these (or any other) credits as part of your purchase.

**Travelers Insurance via AAA

--For those interested and still reading, if you want to do the comparison using the XLT I4, the base price difference goes to $5200 and EPA MPG goes from 20 to 22 so my payoff will come at ~30,000mi or 18months. I would argue that in this case the $3/gal price would need to be adjusted up.

 

mypart and kermit like I wrote earlier. I was not able to get the tax credit due to alt min tax. Also the price of the truck in 2006 was 32k with every option...

At what cost in dollars do you put a plug in mod into your truck? Do you not realize that the same techinque would be used for that as well? Instead of roof cell, you have an ac/dc inverter to charge the batt. And what is your price thrshold based on to make such a modification to your truck? Is it based on break even points, your ability to aford it, or just to have?

I sold my 400 hp turbocharged s2000 to get into this truck for a reason, and it wasn't because I was tired of speed or because of 3.00 gasoline.

It's not about saving money to me, it's about increasing MPG. I hate knowing that every day when I gas up I am basically sending money overseas to buy oil from the same groups of people that want to kill us. I think any modification to either your car, house, or other energy usages should be manditory. I am not a patriot, or some right wing looney conspiracy theorist...

And if it doesn't insite you the least when you hear Chavez, or Amadijinadad (Iran's leader spelling?) speak on the radio, while you're driving to work in your truck, then I guess you and I will never be on the same page. And you will never really understand why I want to do this.

 

I'm just baffled...I hear people on here constantly saying (like Hack is now) how they don't worry about breaking even or saving money to get the hybrid...heck I was getting post after post about it when I first signed up here and was asking about pricing....now Hack says the same thing and everyone wants to tell him he'll never make his money back...I don't get it....anyway Hack, I picked up a couple week old Autoweek magazine this morning saw a solar panel on the roof of a Cadillac hydrogen cell SUV, Provoq I think it was called...they said however it was to power the audio system etc...panel wasn't as large as you as thinking though, looked like a sun roof size.

 

Easy there, hack. My post was meant to be completely informational. All the numbers I quoted are straight from the Ford website or are my real-world documented results. As several have mentioned, when comparing the "hybrid premium" it's important that as close to an apples to apples comparison is performed. I expect that your $32K loaded FEH would have been a $28K loaded XLT. Sorry the AMT killed your tax credit but that's not the case for MANY other potential FEH owners.

Since August 2007, I've reduced my gasoline usage by at least 292 gallons. This is what I consider part of "mypart" to reduce the power of foreign and domestic oil, clean the environment and promote technology that will increase this going forward.

I encourage you to do whatever modification you want to your vehicle and hope that you will report your findings here. At this point you seem to have a lower break even points than others that have posted. Good for you and hopefully good for all of us if you hit on something that works. There are many smart minds here with loads of technical and real world knowledge, especially in the areas key to hybrid components. I don't think that any of them are telling you not to try your ideas but they are pointing out where the problem areas may be.

Please post back and let us know how you make out!