Plus you can power an electric car with solar panels as long as it doesn't have to carry them around. Over time the grid will become more and more green, while gas cars will always have to burn their fuel.
EVs are just better and more green, don't even know how's that a question.
Even in the best possible case, very few people are going to charge a car directly from their own private solar source unless no other choices, it's just not remotely time efficient and likely never will be. To charge an empty 75kwh car battery in roughly 1 hr today you would need approximately 225 square meters of solar panel, assuming a pretty good ~30 percent efficiency rate and strong sun. In reality it will likely need even more panels, and this is all before you contend with shade, weather, night storage and so forth. For a car, private solar will likely never work well enough to become mainstream due to aforementioned solar energy transmission limits.
That said, I don't believe carrying panels around to be a very practical nor attractive option.
I've been very annoyed by online discourse that ignores that simple fact, but in this case the primary utility of a portable option would be on that cross-country drive. If you're just making small trips and topping it up, you're no better off than if you just charged overnight at home.
I _have_ seen non-EV RVs with mounted panels (charging while driving) and more to be unfolded while parked for both shade and more power. They used the power for fridges etc, but not for locomotion. Seemed totally reasonable to me.
Yes, though most people don’t need to do that. Average miles driven in the USA per year is 13500, and this car (“in a desert”) would generate 12,000.
Yes shade, climate, etc. is relevant, but it’s also true that a significant minority of people just won’t drive the way you’re talking about. (Such people shouldn’t be spending 100k on a car, but that’s a separate issue).
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.
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
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.
Energy required to fully charge a Tesla: 50kwh [1]
Average electricity output from solar: 200w/meter squared [2]
50000/200 = 250 square meters of solar for 1 hour 250/8 = 31.5 square meters of solar for 8 hours (typical day)
Number of cars on the planet: 1.42 billion [3]
1.42b * 31.5 = 44.375 billion square meters of solar needed to recharge all the cars on the planet, if they were all charging at the same time.
Total cost for just the solar panels: $177 billion [4]
Not to mention the land purchase and infrastructure investment to carry that much extra electricity every day.
1. https://www.motorbiscuit.com/how-much-does-it-cost-charge-te... 2. https://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/solar-panels/how-much-electr.... 3. https://www.rfidtires.com/how-many-cars-world.html#:~:text=P.... 4. https://www.solarpowerfam.com/cost-of-solar-panels-per-squar... $4 for best cost.