Curious about the usefulness of solar panels
Looks like it would be creating a lot of drag. Bet the range is taking a hit.
I have rooftop solar producing roughly 70 kwh/day out of 31 panels. 2 panels producing at that rate would give about 4-5 kwh in a day. The CT battery capacity is 123 kwh. Not to say panels on your truck are useless, but they're not going to increase your range. The actual use case is to carry them in the vault and set them up during camping, and use the CT as a battery for all your campsite stuff. Having them up while driving is silly, but hey, looks neat.
Should have some kind of ramp/spoiler on the front side
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Probably be able to get a couple miles a day
I’m guessing this is for camping/overlanding or maybe park at a job site all day to run tools? Idk seems like the drag would be more than the panels would produce on any given day unless you don’t go far or are parked for a few days at a time
Reminded of the Aptera.
Putzing around town, that could be an easy 15 miles a day. Not huge, but if you have a short commute, it means only plugging in every few weeks. Of course, you have to collect all that sun and store it in some portable power system, then charge off it. It's just a hassle. Taking it out and setting up an awesome dry camp is the best use I can think of. Run a little AC ("little") off that power easy.
> but they're not going to increase your range I mean, if you leave your truck parked at the airport for a week, when you come back you'll have more range than when you left...
Not enough to matter.
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Unless you have Sentry mode on....
How long? It would take literally years, if at all. Now deduct the efficiency loss due to it being a sail on the back of that truck.
Well you have to subtract the miles it takes away from wind resistance. It adds up but the payback time it’s quite a while
I thought there already was a rollup solar tonneau cover available?
Generates 4-5kWh a day and extra drag takes away 15kWh a day
Yeahhhhh, physics is just working against us currently. The efficiency of the panels and surface area compared to the vehicles battery size, means it would be the trickleiest of trickle chargers lol. For example, the Hyundai sonata has a solar panel roof and I think the manual states 8ish hours of direct sun a day “only” equates to 1-3 miles a day. But hey, it’s still free range 🤷♂️ Edit: clarity
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As much as those feel like another elio motors... I'd love to daily one.
It doesn't matter. The energy it captures is the same. That energy has a cost. For me it would capture a few centers per day. If this actually made a difference you'd see every EV have panels on them. This is a simple math problem and the math doesn't work with today's solar tech.
So we don’t know if it adds up either
😆 Fuckin love the Elio saga. Been following that shitshow since like 2008 and even got to sit in one, but I don't think they ever had a functional model. At least Aptera's offering demo drives, so it's more like Arcimoto in that regard.
Definitely eating up more range than it is creating.
Nope. One of the many rumored/promised features that never made it to production unfortunately
The best bi-facial panels are 550w in optimal conditions. Two panels would at the most generate 1 - 2 miles per hour if perfectly aligned.
But you will lose more than 15 miles per day due to increased drag and weight.
Not useful.
At low speed around the city? Unlikely.
I got some foldable solar panels from Jackery that probably don’t produce as much energy as these, but can easily be stowed away so it doesn’t effect drag (and could be mounted much more flush if you needed to use it while driving). Seeing how much some of the roof racks impact the range I have to think a non-optimized set up like this is pretty brutal on the truck’s efficiency
Yes to drag, but probably not to weight in a meaningful way.
I have no idea what I'm talking about but it looks like the sharp angle of the room probably puts the air right up against the top of the panel like a parachute. It looks like it would create drag that you can feel on the highway
Useless, but at least it makes a statement, for the uneducated.
>But hey, it’s still free range It's range they paid for up front haha
Even at 25 mph you absolutely would
I bet the panels would even out sentry mode usage
They tried that on the Martian. It took years for mark to get anywhere.
I just got 42 panels producing 110kWh per day.
Depends how far you drive every day and if you take the freeway or slower roads where drag isn’t as much of a factor
People thought that about pickup truck tailgates for years. But turns out it's fine. Fluid dynamics are weird.
I mean, it takes 10-15 years to break even with solar on your house. So yeah, putting panels like that on the back is kinda dumb.
Probably just going camping for the weekend
It's a wing, creating lift!
.5 kw/h means that you get a full charge for every ~200 hours of sunlight. Good in a real pinch, but that’s about it.
It was never promised, people just like making shit up
That was an initial Tesla design; panels on a truck to give 15+ miles a day. Elon did not like the idea or as Sandy Munro told me, it is believed integral car solar panels are not feasible yet.
Makes it extra silly.
I wouldn’t have them deployed while the truck is in motion, but for camping in situ yeah I’m sure they’re fine. Useful for the type of appliances that you use for camping.
My scenario is driving 15 miles a day, in the city. You're arguing that even at 25mph, I'd lose an additional 15 miles of range because of that little, low speed, wind resistance? Have you towed with a Cybertruck? lol
The absolute most wattage you're likely to get in this setup is 1200W, but probably more like 800W. If we assume 1,000W (simple numbers), you might generate 3 miles per hour of range in full sun. On an average day in the Northeast US, that could be 12-14 miles/day; in the Southwest? maybe 20-25 miles/day.
No that is definitely causing drag. It’s literally in the windstream.
Salt Lake City?
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Maybe 10-20 miles per day.
That's why I said putzing around town 15 miles a day. These people saying it'd lose 15 miles of range are assuming it's 80MPH for 10 minutes a day or something crazy. lol. Stop and go at 25mph max speed, these wouldn't make any noticeable difference.
Depends on the situation. If you’re going to have it parked for a few weeks, could make a difference.
Could they be for camping?
Where are you parking a CT for a few weeks that you wouldn't be plugged in? That's a huge cost to pay to let a car sit for 3 weeks just to keep Sentry mode on.
A pickup bed isn't shaped like a literal air scoop.
I would love to see something like this that unfolds a few times when parked. That would actually be a useful amount of power.
Tesla tiles could be fashioned into cool replacement panels.
ITT: The number of people who can't figure out that this is about on-site generation (camping, remote jobsite, etc.)...
New Toyota Prius has solar panel option. I think it’s a tiny 180 Wh panel. It’s very lucky to even generate 900 Wh (0.9 kWh) in perfect conditions in a full day. That’s sentry running for roughly 3 hours.
I think it would work if you live somewhere where it’s always warm/hot and sunny.
they would help with keepign the direct sun off the car as well and may have additional cooling effect from tha tas well
That’s 200 hours of no shade and aligned to the sun. That can quickly turn into 2000 hours. Also need to factor in that the truck charges most likely by ac. So you need a solar charge controller to most likely an intermediate battery that has an AC inverter. Maybe 80-90% of what’s captured makes it to the Tesla battery.
Or maybe it is used to keep enough power for sentry mode when is parked or keep the AC running.
that is what i was thinking. it isnt for driving its for not driving.
If it was designed better to where there was a front cover of some sort that allowed the air to slide smoothly, it wouldn’t be as bad as this. This is pretty awful for range IMO.
I’m assuming this is for using other items when camping not for charging the truck
Camping/hiking. I have a buddy who will hike the Appellation Trail for 10+ days twice a year. Car never moves.
Driving around with a parachute can't be good for range.
Those solar panels could potentially be charging a large Jackery or something similar inside the truck bed, not necessarily the truck itself.
It’ll pay for itself 70 years from now!
This is my use case. I would love to have it for camping, even if gains are minimal.
Those look to be 2 400w panels. So 800w all together. Let’s say it’s a perfect sunny day with no shadows and you get 10 hours of sun. The maximum theoretical energy gained here is 800w*10=8,000 Whrs so 8kwhrs I believe the cybertruck gets like 2.4 miles to the kwhr. So 8*2.4=19.2 miles of maximum theoretical range. In the real world you usually average about 60% power generation from solar. Sooo 19.2*0.60=11.52 miles of range added per day if parked in the sun for 10 hours a day. Just back of the napkin thoughts.
Yes: we need a portable option, or integrated panels
WATT5UP Cool plate. Cool solar rig setup, too. How far would that extend the range, realistically?
Depends how much you drive.
2095 is gonna be their year!
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Sentry takes 300W to run??
I’m no physicist but I’m going to say more lift than drag.
For an extra 5 miles a week.
Yes, what if
Who was it? Fisker, I believe, had a solar panel on their vehicles roof. I saw a video and someone mentioned that the solar panel had made something like 15 miles of energy over the thousands of miles the vehicle had driven. And that was integrated into the roof.
Yes, it relies on the Autopilot computer to run object detection on all 4 or 6 video streams while saving them on to the USB. Autopilot computer is also cooled by the liquid cooling system that runs through the high voltage battery so that operates as well, is my understanding.
Drag is a byproduct of lift. There are two types of drag induced drag (caused by lift) and parasite drag (caused by air moving around an object) these solar panels are likely doing both.
How about you check yourself before saying other people are making shit up. They haven't offered it for sale, but they made sure to patent the design so nobody else can either. https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-cybertruck-solar-panel-tonneau-cover-patent-elon-musk/?hl=en-US
At all. This much panel is maybe 5 miles a day
Super helpful distinction! To clarify my thought using my new found knowledge, it seems like most are concerned with parasitic drag, but I think this mount would create more lift than parasitic drag (not to discount the induced drag). I really have no idea though. Just wanted to introduce the idea that lift may be a more significant byproduct than parasitic drag.
Yes.
Sooo is the driver of this solar panel truck around or y’all just talkin? Aren’t they some new solar panels that get a bit more? Prob is for some kind of camping hybrid set up. Pretty cool. Wonder what they are using them for.
Crap company
In all honesty, probably calculates as being worth it if defined that way. Cars don’t drive often. Unless you’re saying it takes 15kWh on a day of minimal driving—but that I might not believe.
Curious about if it can be hardwired to the truck or if they have an external battery that they plug in when parked. I wanna hear how it can work more than I wanna hear bout drag and blah blah blah. The car is a drag machine front end is flat. 😂
loses more energy than it generates because of the air drag...
those panels are pulling in maybe 600ah. you are lucky to get 5miles out of them from 4 hours in the direct sun - seriously would not be worth shit
For a paltry 10-12 usable miles of range per sunny day… I don’t think so. The panels need to be able to fold away when driving to be worthwhile at all. Also need to be put away if cloudy. For an extremely lightweight and aerodynamic vehicle solar is worthwhile. Just not for a truck due to its raw energy consumption.
Actually Being an engineer in the automotive industry, you would be surprised at how small of a difference the front end makes on aero. It's a bit counter intuitive ik. It does have an impact but it's very minor. Mainly drag is affected by the low-pressure zone and less on slip stream. The tanno cover being up or down or solar panels on the back would be a huge hit on your preformance coefficient.
I have 25 400w panels on my house, I can get 8kwh max in midday sun in June... I can charge my M3 at 10A == 10 miles of range per hour... 2 whole panels? they'll be lucky to do 1 mph
Yeah, I asked ChatGPT about it and it came to the same conclusion. I thought I'd keep a panel in my trunk for emergencies, but it just isn't worth the extra weight in all but the worst of cases; I'll just keep my AAA membership.
Perhaps the owner drives really slowly
I was reading this response, and I swear I thought you said something about keeping AAA batteries! LOL
smart
Use case here is to charge your car when you’re in a remote location not for increased range. I don’t think any ev can drive and charge at the same time. There’s a safety in teslas that won’t let you put the car in drive if there’s a charger plugged in.
Mhm? That's 2 normal size panels, 0.9-1kwp In a sunny place that can produce >10kwp per day That should amount to ~20 miles or so
You can’t just add the panels, you also need a charge controller. Not sure how it’d all wired so that it can charge the batteries since you need a 115V or 220v power source and the panels by itself is nowhere near that
[Trickle charger](https://chatgpt.com/share/6860c622-81b4-800e-b641-c4ee14601cdc) according to a quick calculation by Chad but who knows in the real world
Yeah seems counterproductive. I guess you could make up a scenario for camping or some other type of long term parking.. but this isn’t a Nissan Leaf.. it’s an $80K truck w/123kWh battery pack. How many people are sleeping in it for several days.. or really need to be charged back up while away on a flight? Most airports now have L1 & L2 chargers for long term parking anyways.
definitely? please elaborate how you know for sure.
I mean, it can make it stick closer while driving and lift up while parking. It gonna be a much better solution.
The Prius Prime has a decently effective optional solar roof
They should have made the tonneau a solar panel.
you also need AC to charge. Panels produce DC
Having access to the bed is so overrated- know what I mean?
4 panels at 60W each vs plugging into an electrical outlet and getting 11,000W
It's hard to make it worse.
Two panels this size can easily have 500 watts so 1 kilowatt in total. I don't know how much power the Cybertruck consumes but this is more like 2 miles an hour than a day.
My stationery solar typically gives 5kwh per kWp per day in Summer (so only west east alignment so could be 30% higher if you always part toward the sun with the panels) This looks like roughly 2x 500-550W panels so equivalent to 1kWp makes it also around 5kwh per day in summertime. At 2.5miles/kwh of the cybertruck that is 12.5miles per day if you haven it parked perfectly and don't account for increases drag. In winter (depending on where exactly you are) this typically drops to 1-2 kwh per day or 2-5miles Note that this is without any charging losses.
This is what I want solar panels on my car for... It won't do anything for range, but infinite A/C and sentry would be fantastic. Plus a bit of extra safety if you are stuck in a queue on a hot day.
to see Aptera, they are doing this n comunity funded. just amazing ppls.
I drive a car 15 min to get to my job and then 15 min to get back home. The rest of the time the car sits parked in the sun. I'd imagine this could work for me.
That's like a vegetarian walking around with a backpack filled with dirt and a couple vegetable plants growing in the backpack. Yeah, it's exactly like that.
Yep for a panel that size about 5 at best. The companies that sell a literal car size panel claim they can only squeeze about 15 a day in perfect conditions if it’s left out from dawn to dusk. Might be a useful thing to have on a longer camping trip or something but day to day, hell no.
I’ve seen a bunch of companies now offering solar panels for Teslas and the absolute most I’ve seen claimed was 15 miles a day if left in the sun from dawn to dusk. So I highly doubt this is getting more than 4-5 miles a day, especially on a CT
What? Also engineer who spent many years in automotive here. I mean sure the frontal area isn't increased by many percent but that shit sticks out like a god damn wing. Even little load bars on the roof are going to hit efficiency a percent or two, this abomination is definitely hurting fuel economy. We are ditching mirrors for cameras for christs sake, this is going to be multiples worse than a mirror.
the weight is other half of the problem
For a plug-in hybrid yes it’s good. Wouldn’t be if it was all electric.
this would produce about 1kW if the sun hits it proper. it would litteraly not be enough to start charging the main battery as the charging system must have 1.4kW as a minimum.
Aerospace here. This has some wild implications on aero characteristics. It would probably ELIMINATE laminar flow. It might create a tiny amount of lift. Lift is great for planes terrible for cars. If I wasn't going to be super busy today, I would build this and run cfd on it. I could accidentally solve Navier Stokes! On the other hand SIMULIA would probably consider this a crime against robotkind and have me thrown into a volcano during the machine uprising if I did this.
Here's a solar cannonball run attempt https://youtu.be/bkttykxRPPg?si=0jYT1aIq1b2-wBHe
The extra drag would cost more that the panels would provide in a day. 2 panels should get you between 2~3 KW on a very sunny day. That's a trip to the grocery store; One way.
Elon has said the same thing about why vehicles don’t have panels on them. One it creates drag and two there isn’t the surface area to make enough power to be usable.
Like an anti-spoiler
What if he only drives 10 miles to work each day tho?
You can charge the jackery from the Cybertruck itself.
It wouldn't create drag if Tesla itself would integrate them into the roof. The biggest issue with solar on EVs is that the manufacturer needs to be the one to do it. That also lets them eliminate the some of the inefficiencies of first using the panels to charge a 12v battery, then run an inverter, then run the car's regular charger... and more importantly then it can work without the manual labor of needing to plug the car in to that battery constantly. As far as usabability, I think that's entirely dependant on how the person uses their car. Do you drive 200 miles a day? Then yes it sucks for you. Do you drive 20 miles a day? Suddenly the 10 miles a day that these panels would provide are covering half your daily use. Now the 300 mile battery ends up covering 600 miles before you need to charge it the normal way. Do you let your car sit for days and only drive on occasion? huge benefits for you. But really, the best benefit in my opinion is simply the fact that it can combat phantom drain. You can park your car at the airport and not worry it will be drained when you get back from your trip.
Keeping the car on in sentry is 300w iirc, so yes it could do that indefinitely. AC is much more than that and the solar could not keep up.
It's entirely dependant on how much you drive. I'm sure it's degrading efficiency some. Ultimately someone could do some experiments and find out how much more energy is being used per mile and compare that with the energy generated. Obviously if you don't drive much the panels will be worth it, and if you drive a lot that increased drag will hurt more than the panels help. But the point is that number of daily miles where it's breakeven is something we could calculate... and if only tesla were to integrate panels into the car, then suddenly it makes no extra drag and the extra weight is marginal. Plus the benefit of beating phantom drain alone is huge. In my opinion it's a worthwhile addition even if that's all it does.
The only value to me is the phantom drain. If you only drive 20 miles a day, then finding time over the course of 10+ days to park the car and recharge starts to become an easy thing with a huge multi-day window of time to find a solution. Also, is it is even worth your while for you to have bought an EV in the first place since if you had bought a fuel efficient ICE you would be looking at using about a gallon of gas every two days. But covering off phantom drain allows your car to be put in remote or unattended places for long periods of time without worry. That seems like a useful feature to me.
If there was a way to put something on the back of ice cars that gave you a free 2 mi of gas everyday they'd be all over everyone's car.
Chemical here 😂😂😂 I always wondered if a tiny amount of lift might be good for a heavy truck to reduce friction. I can’t imagine it’s going to flip. Is it just bad for traction control?
So you do agree, it doesn’t add range but it will keep your car from going flat
Seriously why is sentry such an energy hog.
A Cybertruck impersonating an Aptera, you don't that every day! 😊
I’d be more worried about lift
It's running AI models on every frame coming out of all the cameras. Try running that on your phone battery and you'll drain it in like 15 minutes. Recharging your phone 100 times a day adds up to a decent chunk of power
Cells give him 2 miles a day, extra drag costs him 4 miles a day.
Can't remember their name for the life of me, but there was a US car company upstart at the lemans classic event a few years ago that it's bonnet, roof and maybe boot was solar panels. As you and other comments say, the pure solar stats were pretty abysmal. If I remember right it was like like 100+ hours of direct sunlight to recharge to 200 miles buy they were Vegas based and targeting basically the market you described so hours leaving your car in the Vegas sun would've been Interestingly, they did say that when fully depleted, the solar panels alone could propel the vehicle at 3 mph, which I didn't expect.
Why has nobody mentioned the fact you can no longer use the truck part of the truck? I don't know why anyone would do this.
I said > you'll have more range than when you left...
It’s probably more for camping. This would only generate at most a few hundred watts, not enough to charge the battery after 120v transform and inverter loss.
600 amp hours?!? If those were 550 watt panels somehow, that's 26amps at full sun. Best case scenario they're making 160 amp hours at \~50 volts. 160 amp hours at 50 volts gives us 8.25kWhs. Me putzing around town, I get nearly 4 miles a watt hour. So, over 30 miles of range at low speed, including a 10% hit to efficiency, which seems extremely high for 25mph and under driving. But either way, 600ah is a strange number, and even at 50 volts, that's 30kWh. Your 5 miles of range from 600 amp hours means you're getting 6kWh a mile. Do you routinely tow 747s at 25mph? Because that's the only way I'm estimating that type of consumption at low speeds.
Aptera?
Bad for traction. Good for tire wear. But this is all pretty marginal compared to the impact on range.
No, in my living room, the AC in a hot day can reach 800/900W to keep the room cool at 24C (but it's less when we're at temperature). The car is WAY smaller than my living room, I hope it doesn't need more than 300W to keep it cool...
Obviously the dude doesn’t have it on the truck to increase range while driving. It’s probably used as power for accessories while posted up somewhere like camping or it’s kept in the sun parked often n gets some extra range that way. Or they were just curious
But if you're spending more time sitting/camping it would regenerate at \~ 500 watts per panel, so like 750 watts peak during the say and definitely be worth it. The cross sectional drag area of the top edge of the panels is minimal too.
Each Tesla panel peaks at 500 watts, so that's more like 1000 watts peak panel output. Probably like 700-800 watts for a good 3-4 hours a day in the summer
In my model 3, having the car with the AC on uses about 13% charge for 10 hours. That works out to 862W to have the car running with AC on. Although the car is smaller, it is subject to the greenhouse effect and poorer insulation than a house.
Aptera, Fisker and a host of Chinese companies have done this.
I think there could definitely be a better setup with flexible panels for a smaller profile and less drag. It would basically hug the tonneau cover if designed well.
Your first assumption that Elon is right about everything is wrong
It would be enough to cover any phantom drain and possibly cover sentry mode use.
Why is there no air deflector at the leading edge of the panels? Seems like these are scooping air as you drive which I’d think causes more drag 🤷♂️
Yes, 1000 watts is one kilowatt. No idea how many hours those will output peak power. If you're desperate you can park the car accordingly over the day. So on a steep incline for early and late hours
Panels are for when stopped not during driving.
That looks like around 1 kWp in total. Over a good day they would generate 6-7kWh of energy... How much range is it in a CT? 20km?
its not about the speed. its about friction
Doing it in the name of Science ⚛️☀️
Never said everything he says is right but if you do the math you would concur with Elion.
Drag is proportional to the square of the relative speed between the object and the fluid, in this case, air
The range that he eats up while driving is probably reimbursed when he is not driving. He likely spends a lot less on his electricity/charging bill if he parks it outside. He can also trickle charge it wherever there is sunlight versus having to find a charger. Like when you’re parking at a restaurant for a few hours. By the way, if the solar panels didn’t open up at the bottom then the drag would be horrendous, but they do so the drag is not that bad.
Yeah, it's probably worth it for a 1-2+ day camping trip in the Cybertruck off-road. Can give you some extra exploring mileage.
It’s absolutely about the speed 😂
My 16 panel set up on my roof at 450w each will yield about 35-40kwh on a summer day while staying put. If these 2 panels generate at the same rate, it’ll probably make 5kwh or so. That’s not considering that the car CAN be positioned to have the panels face the sun the whole time there is daylight. Something my roof panels can’t do. But it’s also not considering the real life range hit from the drag.
that was some years ago, I wonder when it will be worth revisiting?
but you lose most of the use of your bed, so why get a big truck then?
Should get a roll of flexible solar film to use it while parked.
Elon considered putting solar panels on their vehciles but the additional range is pretty minimal (like 1% extra if your driving non stop) apprently if you were gunna do it youd be better to have some kind of fold out panels for when your parked, but really its probably just easier to plug into the grid and get your power from a full solar farm somewhere
Need to be careful trying to flush-mount solar. They tend to heat up which screws with efficiency. If you were only ever using them while driving, that would keep them cool, but as soon as you stop, it's a problem. There is a research happening now with vertical-mounted solar without backing. It sheds the heat better, catches sun from both sides, and in this case, might even be more aerodynamic.
Don't really see phantom drain on tesla's anymore
Every time I see a Cybertruck I instantly become annoyed. I’d never thought I’d be so annoyed about a vehicle, but like… COME ON. 320,000 for that crap bucket.
It may not be. The angle of the Pic is hard to tell but it may be below the air passing by the front. And as others said, it may be worth it for when it's not being driven and charging. Like camping or something
So you can put solar panels on it of course.
Sure… but what’s the return on investment here?
Sorry - you’re right. I used the wrong measurement. I meant watt hours. I am thinking they are lucky to be 300 each for 2 panels.
It's likely more about the drain while not moving
Indeed. Those two panels are about 5 ft. long and 2 1/2 ft wide. It's about 225 w panel. 450 w with an average of 5 insulation hours a day is 2.25kWh. The Cybertruck gets about 2.5 miles/kWh would be 5.625 miles.
800 watts x 4 hours = 3.2 kWh = 10 miles range. Not worth the air drag and weight! EVs consume vast amounts of energy, a whole bank of rooftop solar panels barely collects enough energy to charge 1 EV’s daily consumption of 30-40 kWh.
Adding ~3 miles per day… if it’s sunny.
Cuz it's Cyber.
Probably pretty low compares to a stationary setup. On the other hand those two panels barely cost 100 bucks a piece. But with the low US electricity prices that's still a lot compared to here in Germany
I think you may be overestimating just how much power AC actually uses.
Plus the massive inefficiency from not always being in the sun (there is a reason we put panels on roofs and not under shade) Plus tue massive inefficiency from getting all the road dirt on it. Even a few hours drive is going to make those panels filthy Plus the ease at which the panels will become damaged since they are much much flimsier than car paintwork
I wouldn’t say “a lot less” if you are generating 5-10kW/day (under the most optimum perfect conditions) then you aren’t really saving all that much power. Especially if your normal charging scenario is at home, from power you generate off your roof mounted solar panels which are actually efficient
you don't, you just have to put items in you bed through doors, like in most other cars. You lose some convenience, but gain some free miles. Bad for roadtrips though. Would be better if it was integrated instead of tonneau cover
Maybe they drive mostly city?
“It’s all computer”.
He could be someone who travels a lot, who doesn’t get to park at home as often as he would like. And so this might compensate for range anxiety. I don’t know if you noticed but it looks like they’re in the middle of the desert on the highway. Would be a great idea for camping situation.
4 hours is just peak. your calculation is off. A lot of Cybertruck campers are using camper shells anyway which reduce range the same or worse, so this is a good option for the top of those.
perpetual motion
More for show than practical
Imagine you were out of battery while camping, he will eventually be able to make enough charge on the battery with the solar to get him close enough to a charger. Perfect for being stranded.
Mercedes AA Class - [https://youtu.be/0k1tbf8muMc?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/0k1tbf8muMc?feature=shared)
That's actually pretty impressive. Walking speed for a multi ton vehicle carrying a few things?
English is not my first language, so I meant to say 'drag' — my mistake. What I don’t fully understand is this: the gap between the solar panel and the vehicle seems large, so I assume that creates additional aerodynamic drag and disrupts the vehicle’s streamlined shape. Assuming the car is driving at around 70–80 km/h, it seems like it would consume more energy due to drag than it gains from the solar panels. Am I wrong?
If it wasn't so raised off the surface, it might be useful to knock out an extra couple of percent a day if it spends most of its time parked in a southwestern sunny state. Generally though, useless.
There was an interview where Elon said they tried this. They got 7% less range from drag and increased 5% electrical storage if parked outside in full sun in optimal conditions.
I want it!
Pretty sure this is for recharging a bit while camping, not gaining daily mileage while driving
Don't jump to conclusions, drag can be a funny thing. Even if it was behavior could be improved with some flashing.
It isn't anymore silly that any other thing mounted in a truck. Beyond that you highlight the use case that most of us are interested in, that is power coverage while stationary and hopefully a bit of recharge while parked at the "fishing spot"! As for everybody sweating about drag a little treatment around the leading edge probably would reduce the impact to near zero.
I'd love to see Aptera make it and become a profit producing manufacture. For a commuter that could lead to almost zero $$$$ expended for work.
Yep and once that is installed I can't see drag being a problem. This is likely a work in progress. It is too bad that a slide out option for an additional panel wasn't installed. The goal being the ability to collect as much power as possible when parked.
exactly! if you get enough excess to bring back the battery a bit all the better. In any event 4 kWH a day at a construction site could be a lot or barely enough to start the day. The actual owner probably knows what he needs for his use case.
using your numbers that is at least 33 miles for a three day camping trip. Nothing to sneeze at really. However I doubt the intention is to charge the main battery, it likely is for some sort of camp power generation capability. These days a lot of camping trailer, and RV's have almost the entire roof covered with solar panels. Mobile solar power is a real thing people.
You think a car going 5mph creates the same drag “friction” as one going 100? It’s totally about speed
"A sunny place" would need to be near the equator or ideally placed and close to the summer solstice. Most places, 2 normal sized panels are going to be 3-4kw/day on a good day. Maybe you squeak out a bit more by moving the truck to provide an optimal direction for the panel/follow the sun.
Your living room has less sun into window to volume then the car.
It could theoretically be reducing the low pressure wake at the tailgate and thereby reducing overall drag, but probably not with the brackets interrupting flow the way they are. If it was a smooth surface at the bottom of the panels, then maybe.
Best case scenario they produce like 1kw total energy in direct sunlight with those two panels, which means about 140 hours to charge the cyber truck (assuming 125kw battery and some charging inefficiency). So if you drive for an hour in direct sunlight, it would charge about 1%, or about 3 miles. That's best case scenario and likely rare, and assumes low speeds (non highway) where you can actually reap the benefits of that 1% charge and not be negated by the increased drag. But if you park at work for 10 hours in sunlight every day, that could add up to serious charger savings, especially if your commute is only 10-20 miles.
Creates downforce to keep the tail end on the road...
It’s probably for when their parked all day in the desert
Might be useful for going out to somewhere remote. Less about the range hit and more about the ability to go camp out in the boonies.
I doubt it. Look at the Aptera. It's a light weight, super aerodynamic EV with solar panels integrated into the body panels and rear hatch. At best, it gets you 50 miles of range through a full day of solar charging. Now compare that to a truck with the aero of a dumpster (even worse with those panels), and weighs the same as an elephant. Lol
Maybe it could act as a wing and reduce rolling resistance on the rear wheels 🤣
aesthetics
Be cool if there’s a flat panel that can be attached directly on the top glass that also serves as a sunshade while minimizing drag.
My point is that there is not sufficient roof space available to populate with enough solar panels to rely on to fully charge any EV today. The current density technology not there. All attempts have been just trickle charging enough to power the AC.
Oh, yeah their reason for the panels was not to fully charge obviously :)
It would be nice if they integrated about 200W of solar panels into the car roof. It would not add much range, but would offset self discharge of the battery as well as other power consumption like sentry mode, etc., when the vehicle is parked outside for extended periods.
These numbers seem about right. So, 5kWh or so on a sunny day = 10 miles. You'd lose significant range, and you can't see out the back. This is a bad choice all around!
Is it though? Let’s say the guy commutes 20 miles round trip every day. The rest of the time it sits and is in a sunny climate. Maybe it would recharge while mostly idle?
The weight alone is gonna hurt your range more than it helps. But it's very useful for off the grid living or camping. Can easily keep the truck topped up to power a starlink and mobile devices/laptop. I think that's more the idea.
it may not be a “range extender”. could be for charging while parked or camping or something. no clue about how efficient or practical that is.
Folks missing the point of something like this. Yes, you have a net loss of kWh from drag but it lets you recharge totally off grid. Gone fishing? Great! Chill for a week while you’re totally off grid and then drive away fully topped off.
A spoiler would be a simpler engineering feat, rather than fold away.
Looks a lot like someone i knows truck. He said it rotates 30 degrees and helps a lot when towing his trailer. He also said it’s more for when he is off road and charging off grid.
Would power Starlink and some other loads while parked. Could keep a 48v 5kw battery in the back topped off for heavier loads. So they don’t drain the main battery.
He should attach a slanted shield to reduce drag.
Owner works in the same place as me. I could try and figure out who it is and ask
It’s for charging a phone and call for help when car runs out of juice. 😂
Unless for camping where the car sits for several days with no electricity near or available I would say this won’t work as good as people think might be even better too have more solar panels that can fold out and in while stopped for an extra boost while stopped but will completely remove any availability while driving
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