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Comment by hnuser123456 | Hacker News Reader

I really can't understand your POV. Of course it doesn't mean never having to visit a charger for cross-country trips, which is obviously a dream. It does mean the car adds charge passively rather than losing it, the panels are silly cheap compared to the cost of batteries, and the hardest part would just be integrating them into the body panels, which is certainly achievable. See my other comment in this thread where I can easily think of 5-6 significant benefits. There's really no reason not to do it, if we don't mislead people into thinking it means infinite range in the sun. The only other criticism I can think of is that people won't like how it looks, but that's their loss.

And in fact, for my short commute and I'm sure at least a few others, it would mean never having to visit a charger except for long trips.

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It adds cost and complexity to the cars, so that's one reason not to do it.

Still - I have an EV that's sitting idle most of the time because of the pandemic. I had to plug it in a handful of times this year, that would mean plugging it in zero times.

Also, if it is very sunny, it means the car is hot. One common thing to do is to start climate control before getting into the car so it will be at a comfortable temperature. We would get this heat rejection for free?

Is it worth it? Not sure. Maybe. Everything else being the same (including price) I would pick a car equipped like this versus another car without this feature.

By the way, some Nissan Leaf trims had a small solar panel to charge the 12v battery. That was useful. Mine has to periodically connect the traction battery to do the same.

One bad thing about leaving your car outside all the time vs a garage although is increased wear on the body and the overall life of the car.

Again American market. parking your car indoors is weird in the UK. Parking on the street with no ability to plug in overnight is far more common.

"In England in 2018 – the last date for which figures are available – 9 per cent of household vehicles were parked in a garage overnight; 63 per cent were parked on private property (but not garaged); 25 per cent were parked on the street; and 2 per cent were parked in other places."

I hear you. It’s not nothing, maybe I’m ranting too much. It’s cool tech & this company looks to be at the forefront of it. I have an eyebrow raised. I hope they sell a bunch of these cars!

My main POV that I rambled around I guess, is I’m trying to temper expectations. Browsing through this thread, I’m just seeing too many folks who are expecting way too much out of this technology. I’m almost certain it will not deliver on the high hopes most people have for it. Even if that hope is you don’t have to charge on your very short commute.

It’s easy to get hyped up reading the marketing material on this company’s website. The idea seems great to the lay person. But the fact of the matter is when I hear Elon Musk say publicly that he and his team looked into it, & they determined it’s not an idea worth pursuing, I believe him.

Engineers & physicists way smarter than you and me have done the calculations. There is only so much energy you can get out tiny solar panels on a car body. Period. We’re talking about the laws of physics here. Conceptually it sounds amazing, in reality the result is lackluster.

Everyone wants to look at it with ‘best case scenario’ mentality, but day to day it’s just not going to be that effective. Again, not saying it’s nothing. There are some benefits.

But the added complexity of manufacturing? Could it be scaled larger than the 13K preorders they have? What happens when the panels start failing and need to be repaired? What happens when you get in a fender bender and half your ’solar grid’ goes offline, will you be willing or able to pay a specialist to repair the intricate solar grid in your car body?

It’s just a lot of effort and resources that could be focused elsewhere. Everyone is so excited because the concept sounds amazing, but the downsides & complexity are real. I seriously doubt this will power your car even for small commutes.

To be fair, I said nothing about long trips. You, and many others are suggesting/ hoping this tech will power the car for very short commutes. My point is I don’t believe even very short trips, on average, will be powered by these solar panels. Sure, a fraction of your short commute will be powered, if it is fully sunny & you don’t park in the shade. But there are too many folks here believing that their 10 mile daily commute will be fully covered, and I’m arguing it won’t. Doesn’t mean the tech is worthless though :)

> There's really no reason not to do it

Cost is the reason. You have to consider cost.

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