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A comment on Solar-powered Japanese tiny van 'PUZZLE' unveiled ahead of North American sales. Parent comment

Re:Solar-powered Japanese tiny van 'PUZZLE' unveiled ahead o... by yourusername on Thursday November 23, 2023 @03:02AM (#38390535)
Aero is pretty important. You're not hitting fuel efficiency standards without good aero. Even if it were legal to sell, a car that uses 20% more fuel than its competition would be dead in the water in many markets no matter how easy it is to repair.
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Re:Solar-powered Japanese tiny van 'PUZZLE' unveiled ahead o... by stubish on Thursday November 23, 2023 @04:13AM (#38390935)
Is that still the case on cars with a top speed of 50km/h?
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Re:Solar-powered Japanese tiny van 'PUZZLE' unveiled ahead o... by psd1 on Thursday November 23, 2023 @05:02AM (#38391193)
Not really - drag is proportional to velocity squared. There's little penalty to driving a brick at 30.

You can feel the wind resistance on a bicycle at 30km/h, mind. The penalty is not zero. But we're discussing body styling for a given frontal area, so the possible improvements are more marginal than for a cyclist who adopts a racing tuck.

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