The Tesla Model Y may be the world’s best-selling electric vehicle but the owner of one example in the U.S. has decided that he can make it that much better by developing an expansion solar roof array for it.
The owner in question is the man behind DartSolar who has been working on a prototype of his solar roof array for the past two years. What he has come up with consists of nine 175-watt solar panels that sit on top of the Model Y’s roof and can be folded out to roughly the same size as a typical parking space in the U.S.
Each of the nine panels are connected to each other with telescoping carbon fiber tubes and with five hours of sunlight, they can boost the car’s range by roughly 20 miles (32 km). They can then be easily folded away and stacked on top of each other while secured to the roof of the Tesla. Indeed, the developer says the array can be folded away in less than a minute. The whole setup weighs less than 165 lbs (75 kg).
Of course, having a large solar array like this probably doesn’t make all that much sense if you live in a state where there are plenty of public charges or if you have an AC charger at your home.
However, it could be handy when venturing out into the wilderness, far away from charging stations and where the added range provided by the panels could be useful. It could also work well during blackouts as a backup energy source to keep an EV on the move.
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The man behind DartSolar is currently working on the second-generation prototype of the system that ditches the wooden components in favor of carbon fiber. When the setup is ready for production, it could set back buyers around $4,000.
