Should your car have solar panels?

YOU CAN GET THEM on the new Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited (only available in the US, for $35 300), which I tested for a week, under existentially strange but mechanically ideal conditions. Except for a 16 km drive to the grocery store and back, the car sat in the driveway, its 205watt system earning free, clean power, I thought. Hyundai estimates that a day with at least six hours of good sun will gain a little more than 3 km of range. But those figures are for a car in Los Angeles – where a lack of driving has cleared pollution. The cloud-covered north-east of the US, where I was, wasn’t as efficient. During my week with it, if the panels were working, I couldn’t tell. Maybe they were gathering power to run the air conditioning and radio. But the car’s range calculator (552 miles, or 888 km) was the same at dawn as it was at dinner time. I thought about what Tesla’s CEO said a few years ago: ‘The least efficient place to put solar is on the car.’

But I liked having them. It became a challenge to wait as long as possible before driving. You think, every trip I make by bicycle means more time for the panels to work, even if it’s just a trickle-charge that keeps the batteries healthy. It was like letting a plant grow. Besides, look. In early 2020, suddenly, everything that felt necessary – next-day shipping, fully stocked grocery stores – became a luxury. We had to realise that everything has a cost. The panels made me confront how much energy is required to buy fruit. I thought about whether I’d earned those miles, and whether they were necessary. You want to hold out, and see how few resources you can use.

It reminded me of the first electric vehicle I ever drove, a Zero DS motorcycle. The first day, I ignored the range warnings and stranded myself at the side of a highway, like an idiot. After I had pushed the bike to a service station and asked if I could use an electrical outlet, I waited an hour until I had enough power to ride home. I should have thought, EVs just can’t meet our needs! But I came to like the idea of carefully planning my day around range and infrastructure, of only travelling the necessary minimum. I thought then, as I do now, that having to be deliberate makes us behave better and waste less.

It probably helped that these months have forced me, and everyone, to be more self-sufficient. It took a global catastrophe for me to learn embarrassingly simple things, such as baking and bicycle maintenance. A car with solar panels pushed me in the same direction, away from waste. Of course, real restraint would mean quitting driving, and only riding that bicycle. Perhaps someday, maybe.