Ever Wanted To Start Your Own Country? With Your Help, We Can Try It!
Have you ever wanted to start your own country? We’ve probably all had that thought, especially around election time when politics are at their worst. Plus, if you were in charge of your very own country, you could run it the right way instead of watching the clowns run it, right? If I know CleanTechnica’s readers at all, my guess is that you’d want that little country to be run on nothing but renewables. Plus, the country’s mission would be a lot like Tesla’s mission: to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy.
The sad reality is, we can’t really start our own country. The people who run the existing countries obviously wouldn’t be very happy about that, and we also don’t want them thinking we’re dangerous extremists or anything (we all love our dogs). But, there’s nothing stopping us from making a tongue-in-cheek “micronation” to prove a point! Plus, we could do some good in the world, and have some fun along the way.
So, I hereby declare independence for the Mobile Micronation of CleanTechnia!
What Micronation? Where Is CleanTechnia? Why The Weird Hexagon Font & Logo?
You’ll never see CleanTechnia on a map, and to be honest, I couldn’t give you a latitude and longitude right now, either. You see, uh, we haven’t built it yet. Plus, it’s going to be portable, so it won’t always be in the same spot, so we definitely can’t put it on a map unless it’s an internet map we can change and update when it moves (we will do that).
What we can tell you is what it will look like.
Envision these Shiftpod “Burning Man” shelters with some solar panels set beside them to charge battery banks inside. Image by Shiftpod.
Next to the shelters, we’d have 4 or 8 of these solar panels, charging a Jackery battery bank (which we already have) and inverter. Picture by Jennifer Sensiba
Our little mobile micronation will be inside several Shiftpods (portable, insulated hexagon-shaped shelters). If you’re into Burning Man, you’ve probably seen these before. They’re like a tent, but they have some insulation in their walls and they can be set up and taken down in just a few seconds. Plus, they’re a lot lighter than the ice fishing shelters that they look like.
Having a little bit of insulation will help these little shelters be efficient with the solar-powered heating and cooling systems I’m getting for them.
What Point Are You Trying To Prove? (or, Why Do This?)
First, our “micronation” will show that it’s possible to not only travel on renewables like we do now with EVs, but to power comfortable temporary living space with just a few solar panels and a small lithium battery bank. No propane or other fossil fuels will be used in the mobile micronation, so this will prove that we don’t need fossil fuels to glamp. Its minimal weight and folded-up size will also allow minimum emissions when moving it. Even the shower and toilet will be designed for minimum environmental impact without major inconvenience.
I’m sure it will take some trial and error to get this setup to work right, but once it’s done, others will be able to do it without going through the testing we’d go through to make sure it all works well together. Unfortunately, the needed items are currently expensive because there’s not much demand for them. If we could all help popularize them, low-impact travel and camping like this could become a lot cheaper.
Pioneering this would also help EV drivers a LOT. If you want comfortable quarters out in the backcountry, the only easy option right now is to pull a camper along. Once we get the guesswork and techniques figured out, anybody will be able to put a few items in the back of their EV to do this, and they won’t have to worry about whether a big travel trailer would kill their range and leave them stranded.
There are also many homeless people in the developed world, impoverished people in developing countries, and people who have faced disaster who would love to have the kind of security and energy independence that such a shelter would provide. We hope that our efforts will make it possible for them to enjoy the benefits of clean energy like this, too.
One Other Thing We’d Like To Do: Tell The Untold EV & CleanTech Stories
The mobile shelter will also be used to chase the EV and clean technology stories that just don’t get told because they’re too expensive to travel to. Sure, when a big company has big dollars to bring journalists in to tell their story, they make sure to take care of things like plane tickets, hotels, and even meals. When the little guy needs to tell their story, or the story isn’t obvious, nobody wants to take a chance on going out there to see what’s going on and share it with readers.
By taking advantage of cheap and free camping space in rural areas, we can more cheaply chase these important stories to make sure they actually get told.
Being able to practice what we preach through low-impact travel and low-impact shelter on the road would also be a big plus. There’s already too much room for people to criticize clean technology advocates, and we want to shut them up for good with this.
What We Need Help Getting
The $30,900 for this project (you can find our Kickstarter here) will be used to purchase the following:
- Money for 3 nights of paid camping space each month, for a year (other nights will be on public land or in free camping areas, up to 2 weeks per month)
- Money for gas or DC fast charging (depending on whether our Nissan LEAF can reach the destination)
- 12 months of Starlink service and the Starlink hardware
- Two Shiftpod portable quick-deploy insulated shelters, plus a “tunnel” to connect them.
- Efficient <250 watt low-power heating and cooling for the shelter (powered by our Jackery 1500 solar generator we already have, which needs two additional solar panels)
- A low-power electric cooktop, non-plastic mess kits, etc
- Fold-up camping furniture, solar shower bags, miscellaneous campsite items
- A composting toilet
- A small enclosed cargo trailer to carry all of this, plus two e-bikes we already have
If Our Readers Are Particularly Generous, & Overfund Us…
If we get overfunded, we have several flex goals:
At $40,000, we would add a third Shiftpod to our “micronation” complex for more room to work and record videos. This would require a second Jackery solar generator and more panels, another small HVAC unit, and another “tunnel.”
At $43,000, we would add one more mini shiftpod for bikepacking adventures in even more remote areas, with some related bikepacking gear. We already have the e-bikes to do this.
Our final flex goal ($130,000 max) would be to upgrade our Nissan LEAF to another electric vehicle with more range, so we could avoid burning gas on nearly all trips. Ideally, this would be a used Tesla Model X with a hitch to tow the small trailer mentioned above, but there are other EV options we could afford with less.
In other words, all donations, no matter how far above the goal we get, would be used to further the project.
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I’m going to start this off by immediately begging you not to buy this ridiculous contraption you’ll see in the article below. You’ve been warned. Ok, now feast your eyes on this monstrosity! A $350 e-bike from Alibaba that comes with not just a suspension fork, not just full-suspension, but at least five more shocks than any bike should ever conceivably possess, seemingly randomly sprinkled around the bike’s frame.
Credit goes to my publisher, Seth, for finding this absolute gem. He and I play a little game where we send each other increasingly ridiculous Alibaba finds, trying to one-up the insanity of the other’s previous find. This one is definitely a contender.
Spotted on AliExpress’s platform, the site that makes it dangerously easy to procure the strangest (and sometimes coolest) things from the Far East, this is an e-bike that just keeps on giving.
First of all, check out the suspension. There’s a front suspension fork, which is theoretically standard. There’s also rear suspension, but instead of the single rear shock or occasional dual shocks (one on either side), the designers of this e-bike gave us quad shocks. Then, instead of leaving not-well-enough alone, they decided that a rear swingarm with quad shocks wasn’t enough, and then turned the entire rear half of the e-bike into another swingarm with two more shocks.
At this point, I’m starting to get confused. Do we call the battery sprung or unsprung weight now?
This much suspension is like trying to drink from a firehose, but we’re not even finished. Because if that wasn’t enough springiness for you, there are two more springs in the saddle, technically bringing us up to 10 springs total! A guy hit a speed bump on this e-bike last week, and some say he’s still bouncing.
While I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt, my experience with the cheapest of Alibaba e-bikes tells me that they likely didn’t modify the spring rate of the shocks when they just kept copy/pasting them. That means the bike probably rides stiffer than if it had half the number of shocks (or it just has the proper pre-load for a 600 lb rider).
Unfortunately, the rest of the bike is rather par for the course in terms of cheap direct-from-China electric bicycles. We’ve got our “500 Watt” motor, a surprisingly large 48V 15Ah battery, folding handlebars, a cute little rear kid’s seat complete with grab bar (a nice touch, to be honest), a full twist throttle, fenders, and even a complete lighting package with turn signals.
The 66-lb (30 kg) bike isn’t very light, but each of those shocks adds to the poundage, not to mention all the other doodads we’ve got bolted on around the bike.
The bike still folds in half, which is surprising considering most of the frame is taken up by springs. At first glance, I didn’t even see the folding mechanism hiding there.
It’s a wild specimen, and the free shipping to the US makes the $350 price even more tempting. But please don’t buy something like this (that lead image is AI-generated… I didn’t buy or ride this!). There are some real concerns here. Who knows what kind of quality control or safety certification went into that battery, let alone the frame and other key components?
Let’s just enjoy this one on the screen like most of my Alibaba finds and appreciate that someone out there said, “let’s see how many cheap shocks we can fit on a bike,” and nobody stopped them.
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Can an EV really help power your home when the power goes out? It’s one of the biggest FAQs people have about electric cars — but the answer can be a bit confusing. It’s either a yes, with a but – or a no, with an unless. To find out which EVs can offer vehicle-to-home (V2H) tech to keep the lights on or even lower your energy bills, keep on reading.
Modern EVs have big, efficient batteries capable of storing enough energy to power home for days. That can mean backup power during a storm or the ability to use stored energy during expensive peak hours and recharge again when kilowatts are cheap.
That’s all true – but only in theory. Because, while your EV might have a big battery, that doesn’t mean it has the special hardware and software that allow electricity to safely flow back out of the car baked in. Car companies call this vehicle-to-home (V2H) or bi-directional charging, and only a handful of models currently support it. That’s that, “yes, with a but” asterisk.
Yes, an EV can power your home, but it has to be one of these.
Ford F-150 Lightning
Ford made early headlines using its F-150 Lightning as a life-saving generator during winter ice storms and hurricanes, so it should come as no surprise that it’s included in this list. The best-selling electric truck in America can send up to 9.6 kW of power from its onboard batteries back to the house. More than enough to keep the lights on and the refrigerator running during an outage.
To make it work, you’ll need to install the Charge Station Pro (formerly called Intelligent Backup Power) home charger, the Home Integration System (HIS), which includes an inverter, a transfer switch, and a small battery to switch the system on, as well Ford’s Charge Station Pro 80A bi-directional charger (which comes free with the Extended Range F-150 Lightning, but costs about $1,300 otherwise).
All-in, you’re looking at about $5,000 in hardware, plus installation, to make it work.
Kia EV9
With up to 300 miles of range and ultra-fast charging, the seven-passenger electric SUV from Kia has been a hot seller. And back in March, the Kia EV9 unlocked yet another new feature: vehicle-to-home charging.
When paired with the Quasar 2 bidirectional charger from Wallbox (and the associated Power Recovery Unit, or PRU), a fully-charged Kia EV9 can power a standard suburban home for three days. Longer, still, if you’re keeping the energy use low. The Wallbox Quasar 2 isn’t cheap, though – pricing starts at $6,440 (again, plus installation). For that price, you the PRU plus a wall-mounted 12 kW L2 charger with 12.8 kW of with discharge power on a split-phase system.
Pretty much all the GM EVs
With the exception of the Chevy Brightdrop, GMC Hummer EV, and the hand-built, ultra-luxe Cadillac CELESTIQ, every Ultium-based GM EV can send battery power back to your home through GM Energy’s Ultium Home System – arguably the most fully integrated EV + battery backup + solar option out there outside of Tesla.
GM Energy says its new 19.2 kW Powershift Charger delivers around 6-7% more juice than a typical 11.5 kW L2 charger, delivering up to 51 miles of range per charge hour. Bi-directional charging requires the Powershift Charger to be paired up with a compatible GM EV and the GM Energy V2H Enablement Kit. The full system retails for $12,699, plus installation, and can be financed through GM Financial.
NOTE: some 2024 models might require a software update to enable V2H functionality, which can be done either at the dealer or through an OTA update.
Tesla Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck owners may have zero taste, but they have two options when it comes to powering their homes with their trucks. If they already have a Tesla Powerwall, they don’t need anything else. If they don’t, they’ll need to install a Universal Wall Connector charger, a Powershare Gateway, and a Tesla Backup Switch.
That second option will run about $3,500, plus installation.
That rounds off the list of vehicles that ship with V2H software baked in, so if you’re wondering whether or not your EV can be used to power your home, now you know the answer is yes, as long as it’s one of the ones listed above.
But you might remember that I answered the initial question by saying it was either a yes, with a but – or a no, with an unless. So if you want to use your car’s battery as a backup, but don’t have one of the EVs liksted above, that doesn’t mean you’re completely out of luck.
No, with an unless
As some of the earliest and most enthusiastic EV adopters, Tesla fans have also been among the loudest advocates for using the energy stored their cars’ batteries to back up their homes — or even the grid itself. Unfortunately for them, the slow-selling Cybertruck is the only Tesla vehicle that officially supports bi-directional charging. If you’re one of the many Model 3 and Y owners frustrated by those delays, there’s good news: those vehicles are now capable of V2H charging thanks to an “impressive” Powerwall competitor, Sigenergy.
The good news doesn’t stop there, however. The Sigenergy V2X also works with both the popular Kia EV6 and Electrek‘s 2024 EV of the Year, the Volvo EX30 over the DIN70121 protocol, and several VW/Audi/Porsche and Mercedes-Benz EVs over the ISO15118-2 protocol.
Our own Editor-in-Chief, Fred Lambert, recently went on a Sigenergy deep dive with Sylvain Juteau, President of Roulez Electrique, and came away deeply impressed with the system. I’ve included the video, above, and you can read more about the system itself at this link.
And, of course, I look forward to learning about any V2H models or more universal battery backup systems from you, the smartest readers in the blogosphere, in the comments.
Original content from Electrek.
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Tesla has changed the meaning of “Full Self-Driving”, also known as “FSD”, to give up on its original promise of delivering unsupervised autonomy.
Since 2016, Tesla has claimed that all its vehicles in production would be capable of achieving unsupervised self-driving capability.
CEO Elon Musk has claimed that it would happen by the end of every year since 2018.
Tesla has even sold a software package, known as “Full Self-Driving Capability” (FSD), for up to $15,000 to customers, promising that the advanced driver-assist system would become fully autonomous through over-the-air software updates.
Almost a decade later, the promise has yet to be fulfilled, and Tesla has already confirmed that all vehicles produced between 2016 and 2023 don’t have the proper hardware to deliver unsupervised self-driving as promised.
Musk has been discussing the upgrade of the computers in these vehicles to appease owners, but there’s no concrete plan to implement it.
While there’s no doubt that Tesla has promised unsupervised self-driving capabilities to FSD buyers between 2016 and 2023, the automaker has since updated its language and now only sells “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” to customers:
The fine print mentions that it doesn’t make the vehicle “autonomous” and doesn’t promise it as a feature.
In other words, people buying FSD today are not really buying the capability of unsupervised self-driving as prior buyers did.
Furthermore, Tesla’s board has just submitted a new, unprecedented CEO compensation package for shareholders’ approval, which could give Musk up to $1 trillion in stock options pending the achievement of certain milestones.
One of these milestones is Tesla having “10 Million Active FSD Subscriptions.”
At first glance, this would be hopeful for FSD buyers since part of Musk’s compensation would be dependent on delivering on the FSD promises.
However, Tesla has changed the definition of FSD in the compensation package with an extremely vague one”
“FSD” means an advanced driving system, regardless of the marketing name used, that is capable of performing transportation tasks that provide autonomous or similar functionality under specified driving conditions.
Tesla now considers FSD only an “advanced driving system” that should be “capable of performing transportation tasks that prove autonomous or similar functionality”.
The current version of FSD, which requires constant supervising by the driver, could easily fit that description.
Therefore, FSD now doesn’t come with the inital promise of Tesla owners being able to go to sleep in their vehicles and wake up at their destination – a promise that Musk has used to sell Tesla vehicles for years.
Electrek’s Take
The way Tesla discusses autonomy with customers and investors versus how it presents it in its court filings and legally binding documents is strikingly different.
It should be worrying to anyone with an interest in this.
With this very vague description in the new CEO compensation package, Tesla could literally lower the price of FSD and even remove base Autopilot to push customers toward FSD and give Musk hundreds of billions of dollars in shares in the process.
There’s precedent for Tesla decreasing pricing on FSD. Initially, Musk said that Tesla would gradually increase the price of the FSD package as the features improved and approached unsupervised autonomy.
That was true for a while, but then Tesla started slashing FSD prices, which are now down $7,000 from their high in 2023:
The trend is quite apparent and coincidentally began when Tesla’s sales started to decline.
FSD is now a simple ADAS system without any promise of unsupervised self-driving. This might quite honestly be one of the biggest cases of false advertising or bait-and-switch ever.
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