Could Your Car Become A Solar Panel?
Saturday, 16. February 2019
Hyundai and Kia (one and the same company, by the way), are to fit solar charging panels to selected models from next year. Sounds like a good idea to me. From the pictures I’ve seen it looks like it will just be the roof that will become a solar panel but why not make the whole of the car a solar panel?
Seems to make more sense but what do I know? I guess the cost of repairs would sky-rocket. Anyway, I wasn’t aware of the fact that this has been tried before but technology in this area has moved on considerably making it cheaper and more efficient than when first trialled.
The two companies will be offering it on petrol and diesel engine’d cars (not sure why) as well as hybrid and fully electric cars. First to have the technology will be hybrid cars. The manufacturers reckon that the solar panel will be capable of charging 30-60% of the battery during a day in the sunshine.
This stored energy can then be used to reduce the engine use and thus fuel consumption. A thumbs up for this one! By Graham Hill
