Hacker News Reader

Comment by scotty79 | Hacker News Reader

I'd love if the roof and the hood of my plugin hybrid could have solar panels built in. I drive it very rarely and short distance. lf it could be topped up over few days, before next grocery or restaurant trip, I'd be delighted. I know there's not much energy to be gathered but it would suffice me. Instead I have glass roof for no reason, as if there was anything interesting straight up. Car manufacturers somewhat lost the plot.

View on HN

> I'd love if the roof and the hood of my plugin hybrid could have solar panels built in. I drive it very rarely and short distance.

An old neighbor of mine had a Prius with a factory-installed small solar panel, definitely 50W or less, that IIRC was connected to the 12V battery. So one of the benefits would be in counteracting draw from various always-on computers in modern vehicles.

I love it. Toyota hybrids have famously terrible 12V battery. On my recent one, it started reporting low voltage only after few months of light use.

I've experienced this with a hybrid Camry that was barely driven. A 1 amp trickle charger used occasionally solved the issue.

The Hyundai Sonata had this feature on a production car.

BYD Han and BYD Tang are supposed to have that option soon, for $1200.

Others might follow because a company that makes glass roofs figured out how to manufacture them with solar cells embedded. Supposedly 720 W peak.

Why though? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just have solar panels at your home where the power can be routed to batteries/ home power/ sell to the grid and configured optimally?

To reduce hassle?

To make it work when you live in a place where you park on the street and can't run wires to the car?

Yes to both, plus freedom to drive/camp anywhere, even far from a guaranteed plug.

From someone with a boat and solar panels: cheap solar panels needs cooling, so space between the panels and the stuff they are stuck one. This reduces aerodynamics a lot, which isn't an issue with something going 8 knots max, but I have a friend with a trimaran whose solar panels reduce his max speed of 20 knot to 18 (38kmh -> 33.5), which is why he decided to remove them from his amas and have movable solar panel instead (he put them when he beach or stay at a mooring). My next boat will be a tri too, I just have to find half a million somewhere.

Yeah, I can see that.

The aptera design has flexible panels molded to the body under the clear aerodynamic shell. It shouldn't suffer from aerodynamic losses but the panels probably lose efficiency from heat.

It would make more sense to have both, right? Sure you get them on the house first for scale reasons, but why don't you want them on the car?

Cost, weight, complexity, another thing to break, historically it hasn’t made sense and it’s not clear things have changed enough for it to make sense now.

There are some reasons like the added bom cost to the car.

I guess it’s a nice option to have in the market but if what you’re going for is minimal carbon emissions impact it would be best to put those solar panels on house roof I think.

Not everyone has a garage or driveway. Where I live, I couldn't plug in at my house. I also don't need a car every day (in fact, right now we don't have one). Being able to charge on the street would reduce the need to find charging spots all the time.

I don't live in a home.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com