s o l a r t r u c k
Martin is my all-electric pickup truck that charges entirely via on-board solar panels. It was manufactured by a company called Dymac in San Diego in 2008. There is very limited information about Dymac; this autoblog article from 2008 and the archive of their website. There's also this incredibly janky copy of a news report starring the previous owner.
Specs
- Charge time: ~6 hours of FULL sunlight.
- Range: depends on many factors but it's usually ~30 miles
- Speed: legally restricted to traveling at 25mph on roads of 35mph or slower (in most states) as it is classified as an NEV/LSV
- Breaking: compressed air braking system plus parking break. No regenerative braking (makes it simpler to repair)
- Truck is standard Kei Truck size.
- Eight 6-volt AGM batteries located under the bed
- 48v motor
- Direct drive transmission
- 520 watts of solar on the roof
- 15A, 110v plug-in charger (have only used once)
How to acquire a solar pickup truck
Sadly Dymac is no longer in business. If you're looking for a cute electric pickup truck, the $10,000 Pickman might be your best bet. Or possibly the Oka. I am compiling a list of commercially available solar vehicles on are.na.The site where I found Maritn, EV Tradin' Post, has since shutdown. However, a very similar and very awesome site EV Finder is still kickin'.
Trips & Reports
2016
AcquisitionDavid Boyd and I driving to San Francisco from Mountain View. We barely made it. Dave pushed me and the truck over the top of this overpass because the truck had conked out on the way up. What a journey, what a photo.
Liz Crawford took this video of a little truck ride at the studio
David unloading the plants we picked up for work. This was fun because we pulled right up to the door. The truck is so small and quiet I can sneak up right next to the bike rack.
I asked Elon Musk if he was planning on putting solar panels on cars and 3.5 years later Tesla comes out with a solar truck :p
2018
In February I had the truck shipped from California to Vermont. I was going to drive it cross-country but sadly it wasn't in the cards at the time.Rain jug acquisition
2019
lego shifter blog post coming soon...
Miscellany
The truck is named Martin because the key to Martin came with a wooden keychain which reads, "Martin" (which was added to the keyring because it was the original owner Karen's father's name (who worked in a car factory all his life).The EValbum profile for the truck is here.