[rypskar]

And that is why I did write "Is probably not doable with current technology, but maybe some day". We need to have much more efficient solar-cells to make this work in real life. But is it more unrealistic than getting charged from the road while driving? One step on the way is getting them enough efficient to charge the car while it is parked outside at work

[db48x]

You'd have to make the surface area of the car a thousand times larger than it currently is. Or, if you could make your solar panels 100% efficient, it would only need to be 200 times larger.

You don't want a "car" that big.

[rypskar]

But you don't need that much every day. You need to charge the amount you use every day during the time the car is outside during the day, or only part of that. What if you can use the car every day and only have to charge it at a station once a week or month? Then there is even one less reason to use an ICE for those that can't charge at home

[db48x]

If you assume that your car could charge 8 whole hours a day in full sunlight, then you could get away with having your solar panels be just 25 times larger than your car. You still don't want a car that large. Solar panels on an electric car have never made sense, and we're not close enough to the sun for them to ever make sense. Maybe the Mercury colonists can use solar-powered cars. There's more sunlight there, and less gravity and air to slow the cars down, so it might actually work out.

Just charge your car at home, at night, when the electric prices are lowest. Since most people don't drive hundreds of miles every day, people with home chargers (or chargers at their work) won't have to visit a charging station unless they're going on a long trip. That's the only time it makes sense to use rapid charging; the rest of the time the charging can be much slower. If you have a charger at home, you could go years without having to visit a supercharger. A whole category of human activity could one day disappear, and people will wonder how they ever had time to visit a gas station every day of their lives.