Solar panels on cars make no sense

Re:Solar panels on cars make no sense by Retric on Monday January 30, 2023 @10:08AM (#34580529)

That’s moving the goalposts you just said, “nobody's camper has 2kw solar on the roof” and yet here’s several people who do.

Clearly a camper that people live in has different demands for things like AC and a microwave than a car that’s just sitting around empty most of the day. A 15.5 foot long car is half the length and nearly the same with so downscaling a 3kW system to ~1kW seems perfectly reasonable.

Toyota built a demo by sticking solar panels on a stock Prius and says it added roughly 25 miles per day of range. That would cover the majority of what the average American drives per year. Yes most people would still need to charge their cars, but suddenly using a normal outlet at home rather than paying for a level 2 charger looks reasonable. So not only are you saving on electricity but also instillation costs.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Solar panels on cars make no sense by macspoofing on Monday January 30, 2023 @02:19PM (#34585003)

>That’s moving the goalposts you just said, “nobody's camper has 2kw solar on the roof” and yet here’s several people who do.

I'm not sure where I've said that because I'm not against solar panels on campers or solar panels in general. Solar panels make a lot of sense in a lot situations. For example, I don't think it's a bad idea for an RV that is frequently off-grid to have them built-in to provide whatever power they can - after all, some power is better than no power. Solar panels on outside parking lots, that makes a ton of sense to me.

Solar panels for EV range extension does not make any sense.

>Toyota built a demo by sticking solar panels on a stock Prius and says it added roughly 25 miles per day of range.

Again, this is under ideal conditions, and it wasn't meant for range extension[0] (i.e. to charge the car while it's moving). But let's go with that for argument's sake .. so you're looking at a day of charging for 25 miles of range. 25 miles is approximately a 30 mins charge connected to the grid. That makes no sense. If you really want to use solar to power your EV just get regular rooftop solar and charge your car from your mains.

[0]https://www.torquenews.com/8113/toyota-prius-solar-game-chan...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Solar panels on cars make no sense by mattmaroon on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @01:34PM (#34599554)

I said it and I didn’t mean “nobody” literally but it is very uncommon, even amongst people who do expensive solar installations.

And as the original article points out, when Toyota says they add 25 miles per day, they are doing so under nothing even remotely like real world conditions. They’re surely counting on full sun, flat driving with no air conditioning running, etc. An actual user likely wouldn’t even get half of that.

[ Parent | on HN ]