Cruise Car All American LSV with solar panel
Cruise Car management is reporting that some of their All American solar powered LSV customers are able to operate their vehicles completely off the grid. Customers are driving up to ten miles per day on just solar power alone and some have not had to use an external power source since purchasing their vehicles.
These reports provide more evidence that the STOV market continues to be sliced up into many sub-segments which are being satisfied by vehicles with a particular set of features and functionality. In this case the question is how large is the potential market for vehicles that can exclusively or predominately operate on solar power.
In the future we can anticipate an attempt to increase the solar power generated by these vehicles through larger solar panels, new photovoltaic technology and innovative placement of photovoltaic material on vehicles. As the range improves this sub-segment can grow incrementally.
It will be interesting to see if the market for fully functional electric vehicles like the Leaf and Volt can similarly develop based on range specific use. While some critics of electric vehicles seem to believe in an all or nothing approach when it comes to electric vehicle range, I think the STOV market demonstrates that there are niche markets based on the specific range needs of customers. In both markets, instead of producing a “perfect” vehicle in terms of range from the start, there exists the possibility to incrementally grow the market as technology and vehicle range improves. Learn more: Domesticfuel.com
