Completely pointless.
First: in big cities, where people rent apartments and can’t put solar power on their roofs, there’s not enough direct sunlight in the valleys between high buildings to justify the incredible downsides of this “system” (anyone who has been near a solar panel would know that they get rather hot). There’s barely any surface area towards the sun, so i’d be surprised if you get more than 100w average.
For house owners/people who live rural, much smarter to put the solar panels on the roof, rather than the car.
This isn’t new, and there’s a reason it hasn’t worked until now and won’t do so with this car, and why no big manufacturers would touch this “idea” with ten foot pole.
It’s because it doesn’t work. You add weight, incredible amounts of heat (you can argue that’s great in winter, but in winter it generates less/no heat and electricity – on top of that, in summer it’s stupid), you lose range when you’re not washing your car every week.. I mean, nah. We have a solar panel on our boat to trickle charge the batteries for the fish sonar and radio equipment, it just doesn’t work for a car.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.