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Solar panel mod for Hybrid Maverick?

Darnon

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I've long wondered why no one has invested more to spearhead a solar-sipping passive trickle charge to supplement a traditional EV drivetrain. Who cares if its inefficient if you make it known through marketing that its just supplementary? I wouldn't be mad if I only reclaimed 15-20 miles worth of charge while my car sat in the parking lot at at work. That's a free commute home.
Some Hyundai hybrids have it as a factory option. But 15-20 is an order of magnitude more than what they're capable of. Their solar car roof is more like 1 mile in near-optimal conditions. It's why the Lightyear 0 is basically empty promises and even the more minimalistic Aptera is probably straining credulity on being capable of zero charging.
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TyPope

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There is a thread where someone did this. Electrically what he did was the equivalent of plugging a jackery solar generator into the 12v outlet. It will work but it all depends on the charge controller. IIRC if the key was in it the ICE would kick on if the load drained the 12v battery too much.

FYI you can get flexible solar panels that are very flat. I got a kit on ebay for my old car that is designed to keep your 12v battery topped off. It plugs into the 12v outlet. You stick the panel on the dash or wherever it gets the most sun and plug it in. the 12v in the mav switch off after 20 min so you may need to rewire something. My old car had an "always on" 12v outlet that was perfect for it.
It doesn't turn completely off or you wouldn't be able to unlock it. I suppose you'd have to find one of the circuits that was active or just connect it straight to the battery.
 

Darnon

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How dare you assault my eyes with this... this thing.
The C-Max definitely wasn't much of a looker. Mostly like a Focus that had been stretched vertically to grow a supernumerary grille. For size and styling the Fusion/MKZ Hybrid certainly is a better deal, although trunk cargo space gets compromised more especially in the Energi.
 

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It doesn't turn completely off or you wouldn't be able to unlock it. I suppose you'd have to find one of the circuits that was active or just connect it straight to the battery.
the 12 v outlets time out.
 

StephMavXLT

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I've long wondered why no one has invested more to spearhead a solar-sipping passive trickle charge to supplement a traditional EV drivetrain. Who cares if its inefficient if you make it known through marketing that its just supplementary? I wouldn't be mad if I only reclaimed 15-20 miles worth of charge while my car sat in the parking lot at at work. That's a free commute home.

The sun has literally never sent me a bill.
You should look up some videos on the Aptera Electric Car, which has solar panels. They talk about why most hybrid cars don't have solar panels. Very interesting. You would not get 10-20 miles a day but more like 1-2 miles a day (I think). You have to have a super light car that is very aerodynamic and be covered in solar to get 10-20 miles a day from solar. I probably have some of those numbers wrong. But the youtube videos were very interesting.
 

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Allen King Jr

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How dare you assault my eyes with this... this thing.
Hey, watch it now.....(all in fun).

I currently own a 2013 C-Max Energi with the vista roof and the car has the white platinum.
 

TyPope

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You should look up some videos on the Aptera Electric Car, which has solar panels. They talk about why most hybrid cars don't have solar panels. Very interesting. You would not get 10-20 miles a day but more like 1-2 miles a day (I think). You have to have a super light car that is very aerodynamic and be covered in solar to get 10-20 miles a day from solar. I probably have some of those numbers wrong. But the youtube videos were very interesting.
Teslas use just about 300 Wh per mile. One 500 watt panel can make under ideal conditions in one hour. If I park my wife's Model Y at work AND I happened to have a 500 watt panel... Maybe 1,000 watts of panels could fit? That's 8 KwH per day or, in my case, 24 miles... in a perfect world.
 

StephMavXLT

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Teslas use just about 300 Wh per mile. One 500 watt panel can make under ideal conditions in one hour. If I park my wife's Model Y at work AND I happened to have a 500 watt panel... Maybe 1,000 watts of panels could fit? That's 8 KwH per day or, in my case, 24 miles... in a perfect world.
I think, and I might be wrong, but the original question was why don't car companies add solar? They have more constraints than the public when it comes to adding solar. The public can throw flat solar panels onto a roof rack which no car company could get away with. So that is the question I was answering. As a private owner, I can put more solar on than a car company can.
 

TheGriffin1313

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you would need a transfer switch to take the solar off line once your battery is charged. Car batteries are not designed to be trickle charged all the time. Or a smart charger that will disconnect it self when it's topped off. Good way to shorten your battery life.

Unless you replace the battery with a deep cycle battery designed to be continually trickle charged but these batteries do not provide cold cranking amps. But then again it's a hybrid there is no cranking amps required. Or is there?

Also the deep sleep is coming from a resistive 12 volt cable harness that is failing so this solution will not fix that problem. There are some peeps out there that have pulled this off properly. Looking forward to hearing and seeing what they did.
 
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Darnon

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Teslas use just about 300 Wh per mile. One 500 watt panel can make under ideal conditions in one hour. If I park my wife's Model Y at work AND I happened to have a 500 watt panel... Maybe 1,000 watts of panels could fit? That's 8 KwH per day or, in my case, 24 miles... in a perfect world.
The big emphasis is on 'ideal'. That means the panel being unshaded and pointed within a narrow angular margin to the sunlight. Except a parked car roof is curved, mostly horizontal, stationary, and has to contend with shadows, clouds, and weather.
 

TyPope

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The big emphasis is on 'ideal'. That means the panel being unshaded and pointed within a narrow angular margin to the sunlight. Except a parked car roof is curved, mostly horizontal, stationary, and has to contend with shadows, clouds, and weather.
Exactly. I drive 16 miles a day. 8 miles generated would cut my energy needs in half but they are already low. How much would the weight of the solar (and cd if it isn't absolutely flush) counter the gains I'd get from using it? In my case, it makes more sense to have the solar on the house and charge from there since I park in my garage when not at work. That way, I'd get 7 days of solar and I can arrange the cells to be in their ideal angle to the sun.
 

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You should look up some videos on the Aptera Electric Car, which has solar panels. They talk about why most hybrid cars don't have solar panels. Very interesting. You would not get 10-20 miles a day but more like 1-2 miles a day (I think). You have to have a super light car that is very aerodynamic and be covered in solar to get 10-20 miles a day from solar. I probably have some of those numbers wrong. But the youtube videos were very interesting.
Yes people tend to vastly overestimate the power of solar panels. You need a lot of big high quality panels to generate a significant amount of power. It takes a significant amount of power to move a car even a mile. And panels wear out over time.

I read an article where they claimed people should buy a jackery solar generator and a single solar panel instead of a gas generator for power outages. They didn't bother doing even basic math to calculate loads. I guess math is too hard.
 

LSchicago

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Not worth it for the 1-2 miles a day gained at best.
 

Darnon

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I read an article where they claimed people should buy a jackery solar generator and a single solar panel instead of a gas generator for power outages. They didn't bother doing even basic math to calculate loads. I guess math is too hard.
Depends on what they actually need to power and a reasonably expectation of downtime is. Just need to power a few critical items for a day? Or like some people sizing generator capacity apparently as soon as the power goes out they feel the need to do all of the laundry, cook out on their electric range, blast the A/C, and watch TV from the comfort of their jacuzzi.
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