How come we don't make solar hybrid cars?

[Ready]

Why not add a solor panel to existing hybrid car designs to charge those batteries? Or would it be too expensive and hard to maintain?

 

[pbaker]

http://www.sanyo.co.jp/museum/e/e-image/solarcar_s.jpg
there's one.

 

[StrangerGuy]

We would have viable nuclear fusion powered cars first than viable solar-powered cars, methinks.

 

[Shawn]

What happens when it rains, or you drive at night?

 

[Eli]

Because the panels would need to take up 5x the footprint of the car to even come close to generating enough power, to power it....

 

[Kalbi]

Originally posted by: Shawn
What happens when it rains, or you drive at night?

Or when you want to go faster than 5 MPH

 

[IonYou]

Originally posted by: Ready
Why not add a solor panel to existing hybrid car designs to charge those batteries? Or would it be too expensive and hard to maintain?

Solar just doesn't provide enough power per sq. area to make that much of a difference.

 

[2cpuminimum]

He's talking about adding some solar panels to the roof to supplement the existing engine power. The reason this is not done is mainly cost, and life cycle. Solar panels last thirty or more years, while cars typically only last ten. Therefore you are wasting two thirds of the panel's operating life by putting it on a car. There are more cost effective uses for solar panels right now. As the cost of panels continues to drop, this will eventually become standard equipment on cars. Just not until they become standard equipment on houses and other buildings first.