Comment on Why don't electric car manufacurers put solar panels on the car roofs?
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 5 months ago
They have them on some international models of Hyundai electric cars. It’s not nearly enough to power the car or charge the battery, though. It’s more to just slow the battery down while it powers low-power things and look cool (it’s part of the trim package).
Anarch157a@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Even on ideal conditions (close to the Equator, no clouds) like in Northeast Brazil, you only get 5.5 to 6.0 kWh/m^2 of Solar energy, which means the roof of a small car, with 1 m^2 of solar panels, would only generate that amount of electricity if they were 100% efficient. That’s just 10% of the battery capacity of a small EV, like a BYD Dolphin.
My point is, even if solar panels doubled their efficiency, they would still only capture about half the energy of the Sun (currently, the best panels are at 24% efficiency), which means only about 2.5 to 3.0 kWh per day.