Electric Vehicles

I haven't looked into this specifically, but it's extremely hard to make the numbers work for a solar-powered car with panels the size of the car. The panels just aren't big enough for them to collect enough energy from the sun to make it worthwhile.

It also looks like in this case, you would need to manually put the panels in place after every trip, and remove them before each one. And that's assuming no concerns about theft or weather damage.

At best, it's going to be very inconvenient. At worst, it won't help at all and you'll be living on fast chargers.

That's an insane amount of money to pay for so few solar panels. That gets you like 10 miles of range per day at best. I've seen people try this with many times this amount of solar charging capacity and they average around 50 miles of range per day.

This is like those power banks that have a solar panel attached to them. It's a nice idea in theory but in practice it takes 2 weeks for it to fully charge the battery so there's a good reason nobody is using those.

1.1 kW array, draped over the car is going to produce more like 0.7kW at best and probably less due to clouds and sub optimal angles. Good EV efficiency is like 3mi/kWh and let’s assume you get 8 good hours of sun, which may be generous depending on local weather and time of year. I think you’re only going to see about 16 miles of range added per day.

I don’t buy the “negligible” effect to air resistance and lower speeds. There are just too many factors.

So I guess if you commute less than 16 miles round trip, and you can easily remove it when going on longer, high-speed trips it might solve your lack of outlet. But I stand by the fact that if you can’t charge either at home or at work, electric may not suit your needs. I’m not a hater, both my wife and I drive EVs, just realistically they don’t suit everyone.

It's an extraordinary amount of money for what will be very little energy. That's why they don't come from the factory that way.

There's a ton of conversion losses in converting it DC to AC and back to DC again...

Also it looks like it mounts on a roof rack, which is going to have a significant impact on your efficiency, making it that much less effective.

A lot of people are understandably focused on how little range you’ll get from even an all-day session out in the sun, but there’s a cost angle, too. If you can’t charge at home, then relying on public chargers can be pricey. Those near me charge anywhere from $.35 to $.99 per kWh (US). With 1100w capacity under ideal conditions, I think around 2kWh per day in Canada. That’s maybe 8 miles per day of range for the most efficient Tesla Model 3, but $1 to $2 per day of charging replaced. At that system cost, assuming daily charging, payback is in 6.8 years, in a best-case scenario.

I built a small 1.8 kWh (4 panels) system that takes up a patio shade structure, with a 5 kWh battery as a buffer, but that could be cut down to make the cost lower. With similar panels going for as low as $82 US as I type this, plus inverter and battery cost, you could build a small fixed system that pays for itself in as little as a year or two.

3 years later you might have a full battery with that tiny thing.

I've lived in multiple apartments with outdoor parking and fairly short commutes where this would have solved all of my weekly charging needs.

I also think about systems like this for camping and road tripping that I do. Extra power at the campsite is cool, and it would add peace of mind about not getting stranded.

Cool idea, I wish it were more practical. The site says the panels total 1100W of solar panels and it includes a 2kWh battery, sounds like it can store a little power to pass along. But at 1100W it's going to take more than one day's worth of sunlight to fully charge even a small EV battery. From what I've seen it takes about 16-18 hours to charge a 20kWh small EV battery on a Level 1 charger (120v) which would be in a similar ballpark to the max output of this solar array.

If they could somehow beef this up about 3x as much output, you'd have something very useful IMO.

On what planet are you unfurling this thing in a parking lot.... Anywhere I would feel secure enough to use it id rather just set someone up for a quarter the price and way less of a footprint.

With a Tesla at best you’ll be able to offset losses from Sentry Mode, which is horribly inefficient and uses several hundred watts.

I love this! So glad someone made it. I'll be looking into these. It's also a solution for apartment dwellers with cranky landlords. Independence from gas stations AND power outlets is a holy grail.

That's interesting. The YouTube links to a solar panels for a car, but the site links to a type of solar power assisted cargo bike tuk tuk thing

That almost certainly hurts your efficiency via aerodynamics, thereby reducing your range more than it recharges over an arbitrary period of time.

Maybe useful if you're going camping or drive rarely and leave your car outside.

I saw some peeps with a solar powered bus, massive awning of solar as well as the whole roof. They'd have a travel day, then have to park up and trickle charge for a few days.

Cool if your lifestyle supports it though. They ran a couple ebikes for the day to day, and used the bus to short hop around the US.

This is not a viable solution for Canada. It can't provide enough power, is cost prohibitive, and prone to theft/vandalism

If you live in a major Canadian city in an apartment not too far from work, follow the lead of Fantuan delivery drivers and consider an e-bike with those hand warmers things and proper head protection. You can charge it in your apartment and no insurance.