It seems like even a small solar panel on the roof of an electric car would make a lot of sense. When you’re sitting at work for 8 hours, your car can just soak up some sun. I’m assuming there is some sort of problem related to cost, rather than efficiency, but I can’t figure it out.
Edit: Thanks for the help. It makes a lot of sense now. I appreciate the in-depth answers too.
In: Engineering
Not really. The additional weight just wouldn’t make sense given the benefit. Even for a fairly large car, it would be fairly difficult to get more than 2-3 sq meters of solar roof (unless it gets pretty crazy). Even with the most efficient panels (and drivers willing to park in the sun all day), this would be around 3-4kWH at best. A typical fully electric car has about 60-100KWH batteries. So it would make very little difference in terms of charging a car.
Latest Answers