Comment by SideburnsOfDoom

5 hours ago

> the fact that many new electric cars do have solar panels

Not true. Not many at all, in fact vanishingly few. I don't know of any EV currently on sale where it is standard. Because it's not practical. See comment above.

> Now, should you run out of charge during your drive, you simply have to wait a while and you'll have enough to get you to a charging station

Or not, as it adds a few miles of range per day of charging. You're far better off using the V2L capability of another EV to bring the charge to you.

> As solar panels advance and the wattage increases, this will be more and more important

No, it won't. Even at perfect panel efficiency , there just isn't enough room on a car roof to charge a car in reasonable time. Solar panel improvements won't do it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46455027

> Like the solar LSA plane "Solar Impulse" that can fly indefinitely.

You can already drive an EV indefinitely, by mounting a much larger surface area of solar panels on your house, and charging your car from that regularly, with or without an intermediate battery that allows you to charge the car overnight. This is proven and practical, unlike solar panels on the car. For solar panels on a car, the math is that it just never will be practical.