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
Like everyone is saying: our current solar panels are not efficient enough to really provide enough energy for our current EVs. However, if we had much smaller and lighter EVs, then we could get there. Like this:
https://www.aptera.us/
Claims it can go 40 miles per day just on solar and without any charging.
This is possible but probably impractical.
The available footprint of a normal car is about 6m2. At the Canadian border, you’d get about 1150 kwh/ rated kw in a year.
We’re just looking at technical plausibility, so assume thin film solar sold for drone wings. It’s 30% efficient and weighs 170 g/m2. So peak power of about 1.8kw and 1 kg of added weight.
You then get about 2000 kwh across the year, or an average of 5.6 kwh or so a day.
A typical EV will use 150 wh/km. So that’s 37km per day. The average driver only goes a little further than that per day.
The issues would be now the car has to be in an unshaded spot, and might still need to be plugged in seasonally. But if high efficiency thin film solar comes down in cost, maybe?
Btw one poster is claiming gasoline pollutes less than an EV. Not even close – EVs aren’t a static technology. The emissions and energy to make a kwh of battery have gone down steeply in recent years, along with cost.
https://about.bnef.com/blog/the-lifecycle-emissions-of-electric-vehicles/
The [Aptera](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNjUdTJjiNk) does this. In sunny climates it’ll charge 40+ miles/day, and it’s got a 1000 mile battery for smoothing out irregularities in usage & weather.
The model 3 has a 75KWh battery. You could maybe fit one 400w panels on a large car. The car is rated at 240 Wh/mile. So in full sun with 100% efficient, it would add 1.5 miles per hour. Just not worth the cost and components.
What’s the point of putting solar panels on something that will (in most parts of America, for example) spend the vast majority of its life parked in a sunless garage?
I would rather have the option to invest that same money into home solar charging and profit from better electricity production capacity
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