Solar Panel on Roof????

[Grandpiano]

Im sure it will mess up the warranty and I no nothing about solar panels and how they work BUT, I have a 2024 Mach e premium with Moon Roof. Would it be possible to replace the moon roof with a solar panel (Custom made of course) and run it to the battery or a battery they would allow this to be done?

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[Maui]

Possible sure…

 

[MatrickTX]

Let's assume you convert the roof to a 400 Watt (W) solar module. Assuming you are very lucky you will get 2,000W, or 2kW, out of your set up per day. Four (4) peak hours and a handful of off peak hours. Not accounting for angle of incidence, dirt on the roof, weather, efficiency, etc.

Let's also assume you need 90kWh to charge your battery (and neglect any charging profile differences between charge rates and battery percentage) so you would need 45 days to charge your battery.

All things being ideal, you'd get about an extra one (1) to 10 miles per day out of your contraption.

 

[thx10]

 

[AtomicInternet]

I've seen a few trucks around here with solar panels recently. If it's setup to trickle charge the 12v then I say it's a good idea. You'll never get anything useful for range out of it, but in terms of keeping your 12v healthy it's useful.

 

[MrCrowley]

You mean something like this - https://gosun.co/products/ev-solar-charger ? I'm not sure I'd want that on my car...

 

[ack154]

You mean something like this - https://gosun.co/products/ev-solar-charger ? I'm not sure I'd want that on my car...

I'd love to see some data on the aero loss by having that big, stupid thing attached to a roof rack on top of a car. Probably need the solar panels just to recoup that loss of efficiency.

 

[bbulkow]

*replacing* the glass roof entirely with another substance seems ill advised. Possible? Sure! But you'd have to know a bunch about the manufacturing specs.

*adding underneath* the glass roof seems ill advised too, because there's a massive layer of sunblock

*adding on top* seems plausible but problematic. You'd need to have the device so aerodynamic, so you don't erase the maybe 2000W per day you'd generate with a 5% increase in power required to drive.

When I see solar panels on trucks / vans, they are on huge already non-aero vans, and the clear purpose is to provide power while camping / vanlifing, and you can put like 2x 400W commercial panels on (or more). where i think you'd have trouble jamming 1x200 without serious disruption to airflow

 

[music_cities]

You can put the solar panels on the roof of your house instead, and then use wires to move the power to your car. Works great.

 

[E90alex]

No. They won’t generate enough energy to be worth the cost.

 

[Maui]

The McLennan’s have recently been testing the range of the EV9’s 100kWh battery, finding that it’s able to still get over 300 kilometres on one charge when towing the two tonne camper.

The other big modification is solar. The roof area has 2.1kW of solar panels, with another 400W on the roof of the EV, and 10kWh of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

https://thedriven.io/2024/02/29/fam...nth-trek-towing-a-caravan-in-an-electric-ev9/

 

[Chuck]

Im sure it will mess up the warranty and I no nothing about solar panels and how they work BUT, I have a 2024 Mach e premium with Moon Roof. Would it be possible to replace the moon roof with a solar panel (Custom made of course) and run it to the battery or a battery they would allow this to be done?

I have 23 solar panels on the roof of my house. At this time of year they produce about 25kw of energy here in sunny Southern California. That's less than 1/3 of full charge on the Mach E. One solar panel, which is about all that would fit on a Mach E would be essentially worthless.

 

[Gawesome604]

If you can think it, you can mod it (if you put in the effort, resources, costs, etc)
Think of it as a SEMA build

 

[Red Hawk]

I'd love to see some data on the aero loss by having that big, stupid thing attached to a roof rack on top of a car. Probably need the solar panels just to recoup that loss of efficiency.

That Go-Sun solar charger is pre-order only at the moment. And did you catch the price?! $4,999!

 

[ack154]

That Go-Sun solar charger is pre-order only at the moment. And did you catch the price?! $4,999!

I feel like I saw this at least a year or two ago as well - so I suspect it has been on "preorder" for quite a while.

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