3 ms·

Silly question: to what extent can you extend the range of a car by adding solar panels on the roof in cloudy conditions? If that adds range of 10% extra, then

• TylerE 6y ago
  Not nearly enough. Solar panels, under absolutely perfect conditions (perfect angling, no clouds, etc) produce about 15w per square foot. Even if you covered every bit of the upward facing surfaces, including the hood, with panels, that's going to peak at about 1kw of input - and since you'll be off axis all the time it'll be less than that. A Tesla battery pack is 100kw/h. So under perfect conditions you'd need 100 hours of charging to get one charge.
  • fy20 6y ago
    The Prius Gen 3 had an option for a 'solar roof', but it's pretty much just a gimmick. The whole roof is 40W. All the panels do is power a fan to bring exterior air into the cabin, to keep it cooler during hot weather.
• clouddrover 6y ago
  It depends how efficient the car is and how efficient the solar panels are. Here are some examples of solar cars and their solar range estimates: - Aptera: https://www.aptera.us/never-charge https://www.aptera.us/never-charge - Lightyear One: https://lightyear.one/technology https://lightyear.one/technology - Sono Motors Sion: https://sonomotors.com/en/solar-integration/ https://sonomotors.com/en/solar-integration/ - Toyota Prius experimental prototype: https://newatlas.com/toyota-prius-solar-roof/60461/ https://newatlas.com/toyota-prius-solar-roof/60461/ - The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has a small panel as an option, but you won't get much range out of it: https://pvbuzz.com/hyundai-ioniq-5-solar-panels/ https://pvbuzz.com/hyundai-ioniq-5-solar-panels/