this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
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Electric Vehicles

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Hi, while looking for a good ev for my family, i came across this new KIA van. Its kinda like the VW ID buzz but seems to have more space. When I saw the wide roof I thought, why not but some solar on top? And with some rough calculation I came up with the following. 3 600w/800w panels which generate roughly 15km of range on an average eu day, would fit on top. This would be perfect for my regular driving needs. Has anyone ever tried to add solar to an ev and has anyone experience with this car?

Just looking for general advice on feasibility of solar mods and the car itself.

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[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 21 hours ago

There’s peel and stick panels I’ve seen people put on their overlanding rigs but I’m not sure they make a lot of power. That would be a better option vs a stiff panel because of aerodynamics. But converting that power to be useful to the car is another problem. It needs 220AC or some kind of medium voltage DC and it may also not move if it detects power on those inputs, for safety reasons. Car roofs aren’t oriented in the correct azimuth and inclination most of the time to maximize charging. I’m not sure the ROI is more than “fun”.