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‘It keeps on going’: driving the world’s first production-ready solar car

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It only "keeps going" for 44 miles:
"In optimal conditions, the solar panels can add up to 44 miles a day to the 388-mile range the car gets between charges"
While definitely an interesting implementation of a long discussed concept, it's practical use is very limited.
At the stated price point ($250K),
So the ~ $200K over a Model 3 price point, would buy me upto 44 miles / day of free electricity.
44 miles / day ~= 12.54 kW (given my historic 285 Wh/mi).
At $0.14/kWh, that's $1.7556 / day (under optimal conditions).
Assuming you drive every day, that's $640.79 / year.

The break-even for the extra $200K for the solar panels is ... therefore ... ~312 years.
Hard pass.

My break-even for solar panels in NJ was ~22 years.
That made it a hard pass as well.

But I'm glad the technology is progressing in the right direction.
 
I am split about solar panels on small surfaces like car roofs. On the one hand, the small surface area and non optimal roof-to-sun angles limit power generation. On the other hand, small panels might combat energy loss resulting from nonuse of a car that is sitting outside for a longer time (I think the term is "vampire drain").