solar panels on your roof.

[boofighter]

here is an interesting idea
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/05...-battery-powe/
i like the way that it looks, nice and clean. i think that they could have gone one step more and covered the hood and maybe the doors as well.

[OdieTurbo]

MAN! I gotta get me a Prius!

[SVOboy]

That's very cool, very cool indeed.

[Silveredwings]

That is very cool. Being mono-crystaline PVs, I would expect that the normal flexand physical shock in the hood (when opening/closing) would be too much.

But even with the roof, there are hail and acorns to worry about.

[GasSavers_Ryland]

now I'm not great at math, but I'm going to give it a shot, solar panals normaly come with a 25 year warenty, and are exspected to last much much longer then that, the average car is designed to last just over 6 years (120,000 miles) acording to the auto manufacture, so isn't that sort of like gold plating a paper cup?
Besides, the son doesn't shine the brightest from directly above it's more like 60 degrees in the summer, and I think 40 degrees in the winter... so really those solar panals are mostly for the "look at me, I'm pretending to be green" kind of like people who drive hybrid SUV's.

[caprice]

I have been meaning to do up some calculations to see how expensive it would be to do my Caprice like that, It has a lot more surface area than that one, Including the hood, cab and trunk...

[landspeed]

If you can get 20 miles in 'perfect' conditions per day...

THen you can probably get 5-10 miles per day in imperfect conditions.

I do 20 miles per day, so this would be a 25-50% improvement in fuel economy, even in 'not good' conditions I think it is definitely worth it.

These would be even better in a lighter, more efficient electric car, with a larger surface area of solar panels. Like that 3-wheeler that I posted in the 'electric cars' section