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 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours 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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[–] hank@programming.dev 3 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

There are some portable solar panels, even ones specifically designed around EVs. But like other folks have said, it is cumbersome. They charge their own battery and then you dump that into your EV while parked. But the energy generated Is pretty minimal.

E.g: https://gosun.co/pages/ev-solar-charger

[–] OccasionallyFeralya@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 hours ago

Also if you end up tacking it on top you might end up losing whatever efficiency gained from the panels to mileage sacrificed by aero loss

[–] doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Unlike gas, which involves destroying your fuel source (investment).

A solar roof on a car is an investment that constantly provides consistent albeit fluctuating dividends.

Every cent counts when spanned over years. Especially when its portable.