[giobox]

12 hours of sun, the best you can hope for any time soon is about 3kwh put back into the car. In other words, a few miles of range can be restored.

There is a reason no car manufacturer is currently seriously pursuing solar roofs - it's just too small a surface area to generate meaningful energy in a car context. The math doesn't work.

We might see systems (as we've seen in past) where solar helps power accessories on the 12v system (AC/in car entertainment etc), but its not going to meaningfully affect range of the vehicle or help top up the traction battery.

[ben_w]

> 12 hours of sun, the best you can hope for any time soon is about 3kwh put back into the car. In other words, a few miles of range can be restored.

Horizontal solar radiation is 3 kWh/m^2/day, in Germany. 5 m^2 of PV on the car in the article I linked to. 0.25-ish wH/mile is roughly what Teslas get. That works out as 60 miles times the cell efficiency per day, call it 12-24 miles in practice with 20-40% efficient cells. Matches the article pretty well, considering how far north Germany is.

> no car manufacturer is currently seriously pursuing solar roofs

I literally linked to a car manufacturer doing just that :P

[giobox]

> I literally linked to a car manufacturer doing just that :P

You literally linked to a car tech startup whose unproven prototype technology has shipped in exactly zero production cars, yes ;) There is no car manufacturer doing this meaningfully today, and again likely won't be soon.