Why aren’t electric vehicles using solar panels integrated into the panoramic rooftops? Wouldn’t this eliminate the need for charging stations – to be able to collect a solar charge at most hours of the day and *during* the actual act of driving?
In: 1963
Very basically, the energy captured by solar panels is…not really enough for a car. Panels will often operate at poor efficiency in many driving conditions. The panels themselves will be pretty costly and it’s also very likely that having them travel consistently at high speeds would lead to wear and tear, adding to repair costs.
Unlike other sources of “free” energy a car could make use of, like that captured by regenerative breaking, the energy of the sun hitting the car is just too expensive and cumbersome to make use of.
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