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
With the amount of space available for placing solar panels (ignoring weight considerations), the power output of such panels could still take days to fully charge a vehicle, even with direct sunlight for most of the day.
Typical solar panels put out around 15 watts per square foot under ideal circumstances, and at best, a typical car might only have about 20 square feet or so (a 5×4 foot rectangle or equivalent) to work with.
As a reference, the Tesla Model 3 has a minimum battery capacity of 50,000 watt hours, which translates to ~3333 [sq. Ft * hours] to fully charge (~166 hours of optimal sunlight for a 20 sq ft panel)
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