Solar Panel Wrapped Cybertruck debuts at CES

[Crissa]

I love common sense analysis. Well said.

Not really.

Because that assumes you're at home plugged in every day.

-Crissa

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[Cyber Man]

Because it takes too much effort to plug a cable in? That's just as foolish for anything other than robotaxi use.

Same reason as why you don’t have cables in any Tesla cars to charge phone. It’s not about how much effort it takes. It’s about how you can do better. What’s better than a cable? No cable. Don’t you want complete freedom to park anywhere in the mall and have your truck juice up a few miles when you do shopping. There won’t be poles sticking out or dedicated 10 EV only spaces with charging cables. How about dedicated EV roads that trickle charge 1 mile for every 10 mins on the road? Not much, but imagine stop and go traffic for several hours in LA. It’ll be foolishness to not ask for this freedom.

Solar panels on cars are indeed good options, as long as I don’t have to carry dedicated battery in the bed. That’s no innovation. It’s old school way of taking an existing solution and just shoving it somewhere else. I would rather carry a dedicated battery that’s pre charged at home from roof solar and use that battery to charge CT, and charge the same battery with CT while super charging CT!

 

[Crissa]

Still not worth it from a fiscal standpoint, but neither is anything about a $120k truck

Where are you getting a $120k truck from?

I agree with you. We need wireless charging in order to serve that segment of the market who rent or live in multi family dwellings.

How does a more expensive, less flexible charging interface solve apartment charging?

-Crissa

 

[CyberGus]

Inductive charging is also incredibly inefficient.

Citation needed

 

[CyberGus]

How does a more expensive, less flexible charging interface solve apartment charging?

Cables are expensive, have limited lifespan, and are subject to vandalism. Assuming the charge mats can be produced cheaply enough, they can be installed in every parking spot to avoid competition for spaces.

 

[Crissa]

Cables are expensive, have limited lifespan, and are subject to vandalism. Assuming the charge mats can be produced cheaply enough, they can be installed in every parking spot to avoid competition for spaces.

True!

We're not there, though.

-Crissa

 

[CyberZephyr]

Yeah, i thought that was vital to Tesla Semi, what's going on with that?

Huh, I never heard that.

 

[Cybertruck26]

Huh, I never heard that.

Going off memory, I could very well be full of shit...

 

[DrPhyzx]

Full shot of how the solar panel wrap looks. Resembles digital camo

Designed to rapidly part fools from their money. I take back my previous 500W peak estimate: you'd be lucky to top 200W with this parked in full mid-day sun.

 

[Ljhughes8]

Don't know which company manufactured this but here is flexible solar panel wrap installed on a Cybertruck at CES 2025.

Cost is $10K (includes the 5kw battery inverter) and warrantied to 15 years.

Full shot of how the solar panel wrap looks. Resembles digital camo

It looks cool but they must glue the panels on . But you could buy some panels and a battery and for example like walrus g3 batter and some panel for less . And charge at home free and not worry about some messing with you truck

 

[flyinglow]

a 5kw battery inverter ... so does that mean in perfect conditions it can charge at up to 5kw? That's pretty decent but seems a little surprising considering what I have seen from other solar panel setups that have panels pointed directly at the sun vs this where your just hoping the angles line up.

You hit the nail on the head with your reference to angles. The panels will basically never be at the optimum angle to the sun. It would be nice if they showed some actual solar charging data.

 

[DRKTruck]

Once this becomes a factory option where the solar panels charge the actual battery, and it can charge 5-10 miles per day, I’d get it. I can think of lots of applications. Like leaving my CT at the airport for 2 weeks, etc.

 

[Dunc]

I disagree. For many we have to park outside anyway as it is too large for our garage and gets a lot of sun. I paid over half that for the PPF wrap alone. This would be awesome for camping or parking at long term car parks.

 

[RVAC]

Same reason as why you don’t have cables in any Tesla cars to charge phone. It’s not about how much effort it takes. It’s about how you can do better. What’s better than a cable? No cable. Don’t you want complete freedom to park anywhere in the mall and have your truck juice up a few miles when you do shopping. There won’t be poles sticking out or dedicated 10 EV only spaces with charging cables.

You need to run a cable to every inductive charger for power, they don't magically create electricity out of thin air, that's no different to putting L2 plug-in chargers in every spot, with the exception inductive hardware is going to be more expensive.

How about dedicated EV roads that trickle charge 1 mile for every 10 mins on the road? Not much, but imagine stop and go traffic for several hours in LA. It’ll be foolishness to not ask for this freedom.

That's a pipe dream, the cost would be obscene and be of little benefit given by the time you've built the infrastructure across the country progress in cell cost, energy density and charging speed will have largely outstripped any need for it.

Solar panels on cars are indeed good options, as long as I don’t have to carry dedicated battery in the bed. That’s no innovation. It’s old school way of taking an existing solution and just shoving it somewhere else. I would rather carry a dedicated battery that’s pre charged at home from roof solar and use that battery to charge CT, and charge the same battery with CT while super charging CT!

I'm not advocating for solar on cars but considering the cost of a normal PPF wrap it's not outrageous, no different than paying for inductive charging outside of a robotaxi use case, you're going to be paying four digits to avoid the few seconds it takes to plug-in.

 

[Cyber Man]

You need to run a cable to every inductive charger for power, they don't magically create electricity out of thin air, that's no different to putting L2 plug-in chargers in every spot, with the exception inductive hardware is going to be more expensive.



That's a pipe dream, the cost would be obscene and be of little benefit given by the time you've built the infrastructure across the country progress in cell cost, energy density and charging speed will have largely outstripped any need for it.



I'm not advocating for solar on cars but considering the cost of a normal PPF wrap it's not outrageous, no different than paying for inductive charging outside of a robotaxi use case, you're going to be paying four digits to avoid the few seconds it takes to plug-in.

I see where you are coming from. Time will tell whether inductive charging will be adopted mainstream by EVs. I believe it’ll absolutely get adopted. Let’s revisit this post after 4-5 years!

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