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Electric vehicles allow homeowners to have more energy choices to power their vehicles. Electric vehicle owners are renowned for adopting solar energy at a higher rate than the rest of the population.
Some even want solar energy directly on their vehicles – even if it's not the most efficient place.
Hyundai and Kia unveiled a new solar roof for the launch of vehicles next year.
The problem with solar panels on vehicles is that they do not generate enough electricity to do much. Toyota already had an option for a solar roof on the previous Prius PHEV, but it only produced 50 W and powered the air conditioner fans.
Fisker had a similar option for Karma, but it had little impact.
But now, several manufacturers are proposing new systems that can add energy to the batteries to power the vehicle and even some autonomy.
Hyundai and Kia are the latest to ship and develop three different solar cells for all vehicles, from ICE to all-electric:
"The first-generation system is for hybrid vehicles, while second-generation technology brings a semi-transparent solar roof system to ICE vehicles. The third generation of technology will see the introduction of a lightweight solar roof for battery electric vehicles.
The solar cells are semi-transparent and would allow a glass roof:
Technology developer Jeong-Gil Park, executive vice president of engineering and design at Hyundai Motor Group, commented:
"In the future, we plan to integrate many types of power generation technologies into our vehicles. The solar roof is the first of these technologies and means that cars do not consume energy passively, but that they start to produce an active one. It's an exciting development for us: to design a technology aimed at vehicle owners, to help them switch from energy consumers to energy producers. "
They plan to introduce the technology into the vehicles as early as next year.
Electrek's Take
If you want to power your electric vehicle with solar energy, installing solar cells on the car itself is simply not the most efficient way to do it.
The roof of a car is not very big and its position relative to the sun is efficient enough to provide good support for a solar panel. It is usually more efficient to have solar panels at home and recharge your car there.
But I still like the idea that an electric vehicle has the ability to generate its own energy, even if it's just a little bit.
As electric vehicles become more efficient with lighter batteries and solar cells also become more efficient and are able to generate more energy on a smaller surface, I think more and more automakers will adopt this technology. At least as an option.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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