The car company likely won’t have this as an official add on because of the obvious safety issues. Even in its folded up state, this presents a significant risk to others on the road in case of an accident (ie, decapitation, death, impale). Higher the speed (highways), the higher the chance of it becoming a projectile missile.

Also what kind of weight is added here? Solar panels are heavy af. The mileage added via roof charging is significantly reduced due to less efficiency.

Well that's not a very good install. The drag from those panels far exceeds the puny 4000 W.

Why would we put something heavy on the thing we're moving around? And which would be impotent much of its time, in a garage?

One of the great benefits of electricity is the efficiency of scaled production. ICEs can only be as efficient as the small engine in each car, but EVs can take the most efficient form of production — all for the mild inconvenience of plugging the car in for 30 minutes a day...

Every time I see the story covered the figure is 4000 watt, which the creator himself does mention, but every single picture that's shared is of the 2000 watt version. I've never seen this discrepancy cleared up. The 2000 watt version takes up every last inch of roof space, how on earth is there a 4000 watt version and what does that actually look like?

Wouldn't that affect the aerodynamic drag of the car negatively?

You know, at first I said this is a stupid youtuber stunt, probably dangerous, and definitely wasteful. But, if it could fold up like that then I see no reason it couldnt be designed into a areodynamic fairing, and its a surprising amount of solar coverage. All in all, I would never put this on my car, even if I was paid; but, it could be done very professionally, its significantly less impractical than I was expecting (though not totally), and the most important part is people want it.

I have been very interested in the Prius Prime recently as it seems the be the perfect plugin hybrid for me and had a solar roof option that can get you 4 miles of range during a sunny day. That would actually cover how much we drive on an average day which makes it tempting.

Of course the fact that me and my partner drive less than 4 miles a day makes car ownership questionable and we should probably just invest in bikes.

What I would rather like to see is the chassis itself act like a solar panel. Of course safety is a concern as it will add weight and possibility of being brittle but they did that with solar panels, I can’t see why it’s not possible with the cars. That wouldn’t require a fold out and the car will be constantly charging at an additional weight which is hopefully much less to the mileage.

Counting the sacrifice of 0.25 Cd with the aerodynamics of a Mack truck and the added weight plus cables and charger, it's probably only good for OTG emergency purposes and self-promotion on social media. Even with 500W panels, they're only going to produce that in full sun for a few hours in summer. Overcast or wintertime, expect <1kW most of the day.

I don't understand the criticism of the comments at all. Most common use case is commuting to work with averages of 1h drive and 40 miles. With a potential of 8 hours of light while at work that sounds to me like it would make up for any drag it adds for that short commuting drive.

This, plus say a Honda Goldwing engine-hybrid electric thing, would do ungodly distance per unit of fuel.

Could cover parking spaces with solar panels either as a permanent install or as a pop-up carport with a solar roof.

Dude should have just put in a hitch and attached flat-bed carrier filled with solar panels.

This is absurd. You'd make less power from the panels than you would use from carrying them around.

Install the panels where you charge the car, instead of taking them with you.

All that… for maybe 50 miles of range?

Instead of wasting time on failures such as self driving, Tesla could design car bodies made of solar cells. They may not be super efficient, but would add some extra power.

its probably because they charge insane amounts for using superchargers...