this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
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Electric Vehicles

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Electric Vehicles are a key part of our tomorrow and how we get there. If we can get all the fossil fuel vehicles off our roads, out of our seas and out of our skies, we'll have a much better environment. This community is where we discuss the various different vehicles and news stories regarding electric transportation.

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Kia PV5 passenger with Solar Roof? (slrpnk.net)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Mangoholic@lemmy.ml to c/electricvehicles@slrpnk.net
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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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[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 day ago

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 is southpark underpants gnome level planning, i like it :)

  1. buy an ev and solar panels
  2. ?
  3. profit!

for 2... you're going to need to need to figure out how to trickle charge a massive EV battery, you'll need to disassemble the charging infrastructure onboard the car, redesign it from scratch and build it. You'll probably need to reprogram the onboard computer as well as it will be all integrated.

OR

carry around several extra heavy 200AHr batteries in the back of the van charging off the solar, install an inverter and connect an 8A 220V charger to that :)

I'd suggest an alternative lazy approach, rather them several years learning to be an electrical engineer. Install panels on your roof/balcony at home and feed that into the house/grid and then just charge the car on an off peak tariff.

let us know how you go!