Cybertruck solar cover?

[polyrhythm]

I haven't found a thread exclusively talking about this. Has anyone bought the solar cover? What even is that, embedded solar cells in the roof or a manually unfolded thing?

Is there any official information beyond just it's potential availability? Did anyone who bought the cybertruck recently see the option when buying?

Having embedded or mechanically mated solar roof is very important to me. If it's a manually flipped thingy I have zero interest in that option. I want passive miles while driving parking eating sleeping xD doing other things than flip a solar flopper

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[CyberDude510]

It is not an available option yet. Haven't heard any news about it since 2021. Would be great as an option but wonder about the cost/benefit. I think if the CT is popular and the cost is not ridiculous we might see it in 2025/2026 since they are focused on ramping.

 

[wanders]

Would love a Solar Cover, but I bet it will be pretty spendy

 

[polyrhythm]

Ok, I do not know my reservation placement but it's somewhere in the middle of everyone. Maybe by then they'll have it?! I might even postpone acquiring a cybertruck over it, I don't know. It shouldn't be too hard to resell a non solar cybertruck.

It would just be ideal to drive my 20 miles to work, park with my back southward, and then drive 20 miles back. And it nearly negates half my trip on a sunny day. Then weekends I can absorb 30 miles. (of it's the 15 miles a sunny day eating I have heard).

The real value to me personally is it can charge itself independently of society. I can drive out yonder and camp, fish, hunt, for a long time. Park facing southward and sync up when I have the miles to return home with when I am finished with my spelunking. It can't get stuck, except for flat tires I guess.

It's worth the $$ to me. I hope the come out with it. how many of you would want and buy it, would like it but not pay for it, or just thinks it's stupid

 

[tmeyer3]

What I'm interested in is a direct dc charge option from a solar generator. That'd be just as good for longer camping trips.

 

[polyrhythm]

Just wanted to give you a quick reply but in his last interview with Alex Friedmann, elon said that this will no longer "be a thing" because of the very low rate of charge. I'd need to find a video link of it to see it for yourself, but it basically came down to getting charge for a CT to get to 15-20 miles you'd have to have a huge array of cells and basically be stuck in a desert.

Edit: it came down to the maximum efficiency of solar being 1kwh per m2 (Joe rogan podcast) if you're on the equator. with the battery being 120kwh for 250 miles of range you'd get maybe 5 miles out of a day of charging in the full sun if you're anywhere else than in the burning desert.

the "15 miles a day" is the most optimistic of optimistic use cases, as in, a single drop of bird poo would ruin that.

Ok I appreciate you sharing what you heard. So I guess I'll just accept it's not a thing. I too, however, would like a DC plug for some solar. Give it some high vdc input limit and internal current limiting, that'd be great.

Thanks for the feedback. Now to slither into the background and observe everyone's posts C: this was my first thread and it was mainly cuz I never saw anyone directly address this. Thanks. *Waves

 

[charliemagpie]

Yea,,, maybe handy for a model 3 or Y

But CT has almost double the batteries, add about 50% for a range extender.

It would take me over a month to charge lol

Seriously, I considered using the RV solar, and fair dinkum, what a pain in the ass it would be plugging and unplugging every time I go in and out of the place. It is just not a practical solution.

I will plan my travels within charger/range distances.

 

[CyberMoose]

I haven't found a thread exclusively talking about this. Has anyone bought the solar cover? What even is that, embedded solar cells in the roof or a manually unfolded thing?

Is there any official information beyond just it's potential availability? Did anyone who bought the cybertruck recently see the option when buying?

Having embedded or mechanically mated solar roof is very important to me. If it's a manually flipped thingy I have zero interest in that option. I want passive miles while driving parking eating sleeping xD doing other things than flip a solar flopper

So while I could see this being some third party installation in the future on the cover. I don't think it's going to be popular.

Tesla has said it's just not good enough with the rate of charge.

Originally I wanted it purely for if I'm camping or something, maybe backpacking for a week, I come back and It had all that time in the sun to recharge a good amount. But Now I see that would likely be basically nothing.

I recently saw a review of the Prius prime and that has a battery under 10kwh and a few days left out gave it about 12% charge. Which is roughly 1kwh, which is less than 1% on the Cybertruck. The cover would be a bit larger and they did show that one of those days was storming and got like no charge. But even if we are optimistic and say 1% per day on average...which I don't think people would get, that's kind of pitiful and that's assuming people park it in the sun, with the cover closed, and it's a sunny day. Even if you take it camping and use the cybertruck tent, the cover is open and not charging.

I would also expect this to cost thousands and not let you stand on your cover to show off for your friends. even if someone only used supercharging at a ridiculous $0.50/kwh, every $1000 in cost to install it would be about 6 years before any savings and that's assuming what was said above and assuming it doesn't get damaged and need service.

It definitely wouldn't have been a smart choice to put them on every Cybertruck because people in rainy/cloudy areas will see less charging per day, northern regions that get winter can sometimes be grey for weeks at a time, people that park inside at home and/or work lose almost all charging, going back to winter you have to make sure you brush off any snow and chip off ice. and anyone buying this truck to use as a truck (even though it's a small percent) will not get the benefit if they have to haul with the cover open and it could become an expensive repair if they have it close on a construction site, which eliminates a big benefit of the cybertruck on a construction site which is durability.

EDIT: I did look at a couple portable solar panels for size and what they offer and I do think the Cybertruck 'could' get more than 1% per day in ideal conditions. Everything I said I still completely agree with because even in optimal conditions, the best panels I seen would likely give maybe 2% charge with the amount of space on the cover per day. Which is still not worth it.

 

[swengl]

Hypothetical question: Would you buy an external solar cover that you could secure to the CT that would cover the entire vehicle (from the frunk to the tailgate in solar panels?). It would have to be light enough to carry/deploy, very durable, have a soft backing that would not scratch the glass and be efficient enough to generate at least 15 miles/day of charge. I could envision a solution that you roll up and slide in the bed and store securely within the Vault. The angular profile of the CT provides an ideal surface to set up/attach a charging "blanket". I would 100% use something like that in my driveway/up on the farm. It could also serve as a protection against bird dropping/tree sap.

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