Portable solar panels to charge your car?

The odometer says 4583 km since October 2017, 40 kW is not a bad number considering that I always charged the car from the grid, and solar panel is activated on need only.

Basically I take good advantage of the solar panel when I have to left the car parked for same days, like at the airport during business trips. 4 days of stay mean basically a free return trip from the airport. And considering that I travel a lot...

 

RVs can be set up for boon-docking, so I would not say it's beyond the realm of possibility. But I'm not electrical suave'y enough to know how one would set it up.

 

The lack of the solar had something to do with not meeting crash safety I believe. Apparently it must have changed the structural integrity...

 

But that doesn't help if your house isn't in the parking lot at work. (Empathizing as I'm in a similar boat myself when at work….Although I heard that a charging station at a local hotel within walking distance recently added such... )

 

While it doesn't benefit your car, if it lacks EV range to get back home, it does benefit your house. And for a given PV investment, the gain for the house should greatly outweigh the missed gain for the car.

Do note that energy use by buildings is roughly similar to energy used by transportation. In the AGW context, both fields must be addressed.

 

Agree, but it still doesn't help those that want to charge on the go!

 

Car-top solar PV is too puny for meaningful charging on the go.

 

My Prius (Gen2) has 220w of solar on the roof.

It doesn't currently charge the traction battery, but allows me to use the 12v battery for accessories without having the car in ready mode to charge my cordless tools or laptop or camera batteries while camping or working outdoors.

When the Dr Prius lithium conversion comes out il probably add a charger so that my solar also trickles 220w into the traction battery while it's parked in the sun, since the panels are there anyway I might as well use the power they produce.

 

It was just that the glass wasn't a safety type, and would break into sharp splinters. It is also a $3000 option in Japan, and the thousands range in Europe. Plus, you might have to give up other higher trim options for it.

I believe the latter was the reason for it not coming here. We don't have real expensive gas, nor less home charging to justify paying for the solar option. I know some people here would be willing to pay for it, but Toyota needs more potential buyers than that in order to not lose money on just offering it.