Tesla Will Be Implementing Solar Power Into Its Electric Cars

Beginning with the Cybertruck, Tesla is looking for solar panels to become commonplace on their future models. The electric car company will be hoping to fix the number one issue with current automotive applications: it’s pretty useless.

Harnessing energy from the sun currently doesn’t produce enough energy to power a vehicle at the moment. Electrek estimates that the solar panels on the new Toyota Prius Prime only produce enough energy for an extra two miles of range during a day. Despite this, there are startup businesses that are launching cars that solely rely on solar power such as Lightyear.

Now, Elon is looking seriously at implementing them onto the Cybertruck. Initially, in 2017, the Model 3 was going to use some sort of solar power, but it was thought to not be worth it at the time. Musk says that the solar panels alone will give the Cybertruck an extra 15 miles of range per day – a first for the company.

Prices are yet to be confirmed for these solar panels and we’re unsure as to whether they’re going to be optional or not, but it’s safe to say we’re very excited to see how they’re implemented.

Tesla is obviously leveraging and implementing its expertise in solar power from its Solarglass roof tiles. Thanks to the shape of the Cybertruck, it seems like the perfect opportunity for Tesla to test the potential of the technology. If it proves to be successful, it will then trickly down to other models within the Tesla portfolio.