– Why do electric cars not have solar panels on rooftop so they could be charged while driving/parked
In: Engineering
Electric cars use energy to move mass. When there’s more mass- like an extra solar panel- it means you need more energy to move the car.
The extra power the solar panel would generate would definitely help provide more energy, but not as much as the extra mass would take more energy to move. In the end, you would reduce how far the car can go.
That said, there *are* solar powered cars! They use the most advanced (and expensive) solar panels they can. Unfortunately, even those solar panels generate so little energy that the car can’t also carry big batteries- too much mass. So the car can only move when it’s sunny outside. And they carry just one person. And aren’t street legal. Also they look really ridiculous.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car)
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