Solar roof on Model 3?

[BikerPeaBody]

eh didn't Elon say the funny lookin truck will/may come with a solar roof option? but I read for a days worth of charging it would provide at max 15miles to the tank. eh...what am I gonna do with 15 miles????

but its still better than the Sonata:

Hyundai says it provides six hours of "daily charging" for the battery and increases travel distance by around 800 miles per year.

Well I'm not a math professor but that adds like 2 miles of "distance" a day...

 

[Garlan Garner]

eh didn't Elon say the funny lookin truck will/may come with a solar roof option? but I read for a days worth of charging it would provide at max 15miles to the tank. eh...what am I gonna do with 15 miles????

but its still better than the Sonata:

Hyundai says it provides six hours of "daily charging" for the battery and increases travel distance by around 800 miles per year.

Well I'm not a math professor but that adds like 2 miles of "distance" a day...

Hyundai says what?

Do they sell an electric vehicle?

 

[Garlan Garner]

I really would.

I would love to see the solar cells after a year of bumping down the road. I wonder how many micro fractures there would be in each cell.

 

[Vaillant]

I’m in California and my car eats through waaay more than 4 miles a day using sentry mode. I’m surprised how low your consumption is.

I’d be spending my money on a theoretical solar roof on the car to cancel out (to at least some degree) the vampire drain in my car. Looks are subjective, so that can’t really be answered until there was a design available, but it could be a factor.

As far as from Tesla’s point of view, what it means to them is profit, of course! They would price the option, similar to any other option, with profit baked in, including any potential warranty repairs. That’s pretty much how all options work for all car companies ever.

For the record, I do have solar panels on the roof of my house, too. Makes so much financial sense in any state that does net metering.

People choose the options that the manufacturer provides.

Are you proposing to spend your money for a Tesla solar car roof for the purpose of being efficient? Or do you just like how it looks?

There is less energy used for Sentry Mode than your body loses during sleep.

Anywhoo….it was -13F here in Chicago a few months ago ( sentry on ). I lost a total of 13 miles a day due to the cold. Losing 13 miles from a total 325 is negligible in my book.

Now its around 31F here in Chicago I lose 4 miles a day due to the cold ( sentry on ) . I would NOT pay $1000 per day to get back >1 mile a day that a solar paneled roof would generate.

Now try and think about it from Tesla's standpoint. What advantage would it be for them? Would providing a solar roof on their cars sell anymore?
Where there more Prius' sold because of the solar roof? I'm not seeing very many prius' on the road here in Chicago and Toyota has been selling those things for at least a decade.

 

[Fresnel]

I’m in California and my car eats through waaay more than 4 miles a day using sentry mode. I’m surprised how low your consumption is.

I’d be spending my money on a theoretical solar roof on the car to cancel out (to at least some degree) the vampire drain in my car. Looks are subjective, so that can’t really be answered until there was a design available, but it could be a factor.

As far as from Tesla’s point of view, what it means to them is profit, of course! They would price the option, similar to any other option, with profit baked in, including any potential warranty repairs. That’s pretty much how all options work for all car companies ever.

For the record, I do have solar panels on the roof of my house, too. Makes so much financial sense in any state that does net metering.

I did say .5m/ hour which would be 12 miles a day. So that's not really low compared to yours.

 

[BikerPeaBody]

Do they sell an electric vehicle?

huh
they sell a hybrid
which apparently will have solar roof
as per the 1st post in this thread??

 

[wws]

The Sonata Hybrid solar roof is supposedly capable of 200 watts max. A 200 watt panel in my climate (San Jose CA area) would harvest on average about a kWh a day. More in the summer, and much less in the winter. A kWh a day is about 4 miles/day in a Model 3. Factor in some electronics losses, dirt on the roof, etc, and 2-3 miles/day seems reasonable - and right in line with what Hyundai is claiming.

 

[Vaillant]

I did say .5m/ hour which would be 12 miles a day. So that's not really low compared to yours.

That reply was for Garlan Garner who has a much more efficient Sentry Mode than I do. I’m on HW 2.5. Maybe that has something to to do with it?

 

[holmgang]

Hyundai says what?

Do they sell an electric vehicle?

Kona and Ioniq, which are quite acclaimed in the currently-thin BEV market

 

[Fresnel]

That reply was for Garlan Garner who has a much more efficient Sentry Mode than I do. I’m on HW 2.5. Maybe that has something to to do with it?

Ah gotcha. Vamp drain can be weird. It's been dropping for me steadily. It's dropped from 1.2 m/hour down to .5 so.... there's a range. I'm not exactly sure why. Unless the first updates I had happened to drain more I'm not sure.

 

[Vaillant]

Ah gotcha. Vamp drain can be weird. It's been dropping for me steadily. It's dropped from 1.2 m/hour down to .5 so.... there's a range. I'm not exactly sure why. Unless the first updates I had happened to drain more I'm not sure.

Each time we get a software update, things change. It’s hard to keep track of. On my car, Sentry Mode was around 1 mile per hour, which can add up, especially when on a trip where charging isn’t convenient. I haven’t checked usage lately, though, so perhaps it has dropped. I do wonder if HW 2.5 vs. 3.0 makes a difference? 3.0 could be more efficient at running SM since the % of processor power needed should be a lot lower.

 

[Fresnel]

Each time we get a software update, things change. It’s hard to keep track of. On my car, Sentry Mode was around 1 mile per hour, which can add up, especially when on a trip where charging isn’t convenient. I haven’t checked usage lately, though, so perhaps it has dropped. I do wonder if HW 2.5 vs. 3.0 makes a difference? 3.0 could be more efficient at running SM since the % of processor power needed should be a lot lower.

I'm not sure. I use the stats app which tracks things including vampire drain so I can see what mine was and what it is now and my rate is only better then 25% of stats users so... there's people with less drain then me

 

[Fresnel]

I really would.

I would love to see the solar cells after a year of bumping down the road. I wonder how many micro fractures there would be in each cell.

If you're talking about a solar panel on a cyber truck I don't think it will be that bad because the angle of the fladbed is slanted behind the truck. So there shouldn't be much road rocks hitting it up there much like the trunk area of a car. Just gotta watch out for falling acorns.

 

[eevee-fan]

My current vampire drain is .5 m/hr. Does anyone know how many watts that is?

and if anyone happens to know the square footage of a model 3 roof all the way to the trunk (or the dimensions) I'll figure it out.

0.5 hours over 4 miles per kWh, so 125W hourly each of 24 hours.

Solar, you are only charging max of 4-6 hours in the SW. So if it's a 300W panel, you may get 1.2-1.8 kW a day. Each day, you may replenish about 10-15 hours for sentry mode but still be in a deficit. However, without solar roof, you will be draining faster.

 

[tarndt]

It looks like Tesla is working on it...This is the Tesla Fremont factory google maps satellite view...no joke.

 

[Fresnel]

It looks like Tesla is working on it...This is the Tesla Fremont factory google maps satellite view...no joke.

hmm. That looks like something being towed by the car. Notice how the back bumper curves in as if its the end of the car.

 

[Vaillant]

hmm. That looks like something being towed by the car. Notice how the back bumper curves in as if its the end of the car.

It’s probably a security camera tower.

I have had thoughts about a fold out set of solar panels that could be suction cupped to the roof when parked. Could pretty easily get a 500W setup, would be a bit more complicated to hit 1kW, especially for it to fold up small enough to fit in the trunk.

They have suction cups to hold stuff to the roof of cars at speed, so when parked shouldn’t be a problem.

Eh, I probably won’t ever get around to doing it, but it’s a fun thought exercise.

 

[tarndt]

Awkwardly placed security tower given the parking spaces (albeit awkwardly placed solar panels given the car position). Just thought it was funny/interesting.

 

[MexiCanuck]

Wonder when we will see this happen with Tesla. Tesla Solar Glass for the car roofing.

The 2020 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Gets a Solar-Panel Roof

Hopefully never.

That’s almost as bad as Toyota referring to “self-charging” hybrid cars.

 

[BikerPeaBody]

Hopefully never.

That’s almost as bad as Toyota referring to “self-charging” hybrid cars.

Tesla Cybertruck will have solar roof option to add 15 miles of range per day - Electrek