Norwegian Startup Fresco Shows Eight-Seater 1,000-Km / 620-Mile EV

The company’s new vehicle is not a sedan, but a large crossover/people carrier called XL.

We first heard of Fresco, a Norwegian EV startup named after the futurist and social engineer Jacque Fresco, back in 2019 when it showed off the design for a new electric sedan called the Fresco Reverie. And that was also the last time we heard of Fresco until today when the company teased a new design for a different EV with a claimed projected range of 1,000 km or about 620 miles on one charge.

Called the Fresco XL, it is a people carrier/crossover type vehicle that can carry 8 people and whose battery pack is a structural component. And even though it was just shown in one video that shows a 3D model, not an actual vehicle, Fresco is already taking orders for the XL - each pre-order requires a €1,000 deposit and the vehicle’s estimated final cost will be €100,000 (equivalent to roughly $112,860).

We are not told how big the battery that will provide the 1,000 km range is, but the company does say the vehicle will have vehicle to load (V2L) capability and that the cells in the pack will be double-stacked for maximum storage capability. The vehicle will have two motors, one for each axle, and it will be designed with use in harsher climates (such as Norway’s) in mind.

Apparently, you will also be able to fold down all the seats and use the vehicle’s cavernous interior as a camper.

As for the design, the best way to describe it is as an Apple Magic Mouse with lights; we are not shown what the inside looks like, because it most likely has not been designed yet. And this is the theme with this vehicle - it all looks pretty nice and the figures provided are certainly interesting, but this company has a very long road ahead if it wants to market this vehicle.

Granted, this second effort looks more believable and unique than the Tesla Model S rival the company initially wanted to make, but until they announce when, where and how they will produce the vehicle, as well as some credible partners to help them achieve it all, we’re taking this project with a grain of salt - they only have six people employed right now, according to their LinkedIn page.

You and I are on the same wavelength.

One thing the anti-EV'ers have right, though, is the demand on the power grids if everybody gets EV's (without something like a home solar system).

Decentralized green energy works well for me because I control it. I bought it with my money and had a system for my specific needs and my power consumption habits. Green energy forced onto people at the utility company level (like the Dims are doing) is never efficient. That's why my solar system will pay for itself in the first decade, but other people have to pay higher electric bills if their power company is forced to "go green".

If I get the EV I have in mind (lower scale version of the F-150 Lightning) and do the solar upgrade I have mind I'll produce 85% to 90% of all the power my wife and I consume even with the EV. Even driving 200-ish miles per week I'll pull less from the grid than I did before I went solar -- and back then I still had natural gas appliances (now I'm all electric).

That won't stop the Dims' global warming fear porn. But it'll make me less vulnerable to their policies.

To answer your question not using hypothetical numbers but real numbers of my existing solar system.

I'm looking at the F-150 Lightning, which is purported to get 2 miles per kWh. Let's drop it by 10% (because neither EV's nor gas cars get their stated mileage) and say it's 1.8 miles per kWh. I drive an average 200 miles per week (say 30 miles per day). 30 ÷ 1.8 = 17 kWh per day.

The solar panels on my roof are each 320 watts (0.32 kW). On average I get 4.8 peak solar hours per day here in Alabama (a hair more than that in spring to early fall, less in winter) which means each solar panel produces 1.5 kWh per day on average. That means I'd need 11 solar panels like I already have 32 of anyway. That's the short answer to your question of how many solar panels to power an EV. But it still doesn't get into needing an extra inverter and batteries.

Detailed version: I'd need a 2nd inverter if I add more solar panels because my current inverter is at maximum capacity with 32 panels (I'm really talking about the charge controller feature within the inverter box, not the true inverter feature of converting DC to AC). If I'm gonna get a 2nd inverter I might as well get the max solar panels another inverter can handle, which is another 32 panels. I can fit those onto my roof. I already have 30 kWh of battery storage, if I get an EV I'll triple it to 90 kWh. (Count it as 72 kWh since the 19 year warranty on the batteries says not to drain them more than 80%.) Looking at my power consumption history each month, combined with what I expect added to that with an EV, I'd estimate that system would produce 90% of the power I need for both my house and the EV. It'd basically be 100% on most days, then 50% or so on other day (even on cloudy mild rainy days I collect some solar, and the large battery system would carry me over a couple of days). Plus with the EV having a battery too there's no need to charge the EV everyday for my usual 30 miles per day usage (I can go a few days without charging if I'd like to wait for sunny days for free power, but charge it with grid power if I need to like in the winter when we might go a whole week with little sunlight).

Given that before I went solar I was spending on average $460 per month on power, natural gas, and gasoline for my truck (the vehicle I'd replace with an EV), there's a lot to save money on each month. The HELOC I used to pay for my current solar system and conversion of gas appliances to high efficiency electric ones has a low interest rate. If I get a 1.9% interest rate for a $45K EV truck I'll be paying past $450 per month for the HELOC bill and car bill and small power bill --- I'll take that money from the HELOC so I can live on the old $450 energy budget. When the EV is paid off my HELOC and power bill will be well below the $450 per month --- I'll put the extra into an investment account and it grow way faster than the low interest rate of the HELOC. (That's what I do now without the EV except it's $300 per month instead of $450.) As the HELOC balance gets lower and lower the minimum payments go down too (meaning it uses up less of the $300 monthly budget -- $450 if I get an EV) all while energy prices increases (meaning I'm saving more and more by not having to buy most of my energy, even if I'm not putting all of that into the investment account because I'm wanting to live on a $300/$450 budget for energy). I'm using a spreadsheet and SQL database to track it. If I don't get an EV, at about the 10th year of owning my current solar system it'll pay for itself: assuming a 10% rate or return on my solar investment account, and a 3% rate of inflation on both power and natural gas (even though I no longer buy that, by avoiding it I'm saving money), at the 10th year my investment account balance + total saved (not invested) is more than the balance left to pay off the HELOC that bought the solar system. Everything after that 10th year is a bunch of money each month dumped into the investment account to one day repair or upgrade my solar system ---- all while everybody else is paying well past $300/month for their home energy (if they have a large 2-story house like mine).

The EV will make it take a year longer to pay off, but will be almost $450 per month I'm saving and putting into the investment account (to repair/upgrade the solar system). Since I'm already putting $400 per month into a savings account to repair and upgrade my used cars, with an EV that same money will go to things like replace the EV battery in 10 years. So in this whole project of putting solar onto my house and maybe betting an EV, nothing in my budget has changed as I make myself a little more independent from Dims controlling our energy.

The extra home solar batteries will serve two purposes. One is that charging the EV often means charging in the evening when the sun goes down (after I come home). That means the solar power can't go straight into the EV -- it has to be stored in batteries during the day to transfer to the EV in the evening (unless it's a day I work from home or at home on an off day). But that's a reason to double my battery storage, not triple it. The other reason to increase battery storage is for my home use -- with the extra solar panels giving way more than I need for an EV I might as well have more battery storage to increase the times my house power makes it through the night on battery power without having to pull from the grid. For reference, yesterday I consumed 39 kWh, most of which came from the solar system. If my home batteries have a usable 63 kWh I can basically go 36 hours completely on batteries if the weather demands it without reducing my power consumption (my wife and I living our normal lives). That assumes 0 coming in from solar on those days, which rarely happens except for the heavy downpour storms, and those don't last the entire day.

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