| Printed body panels
Obviously the Prius above isn't a terribly effective solution to solar transport. But i propose something a little different. With the new CIGS solar cells of the Nanosolar type, and more particularly the printing method of manufacture, and more specifically the ability to print onto 3 dimensional objects, which whilst possible is not currently used for solar cells. Would it in fact be possible to "paint" the car with CIGS solar panels? I'd like to think so. Is it Viable? Well if someone is going to pay an extra grand for a fancy colour, would they pay an extra say $6k to make that "paint" work for them?
Now lets assume we can get 5 square meters of usable body panels at any one time, and that we get 50W/sqm in america, and say 8 hours of sunlight. That's 2kW per day, or at 200W/mile that's 10 miles free every day. And that's at 15% efficiency, 20% gives 12.5 miles. Now if the Tesla Roadster is a weekend car, then that becomes 70 miles per weekend and no need to ever plug it in.
What do you think? | 
Linear Mode
