Tesla’s Cybertruck Will Have Solar Charging Options

An anonymous reader quotes CNET’s Roadshow: The Tesla Cybertruck will have a solar charging option that can extend its driving range 15 miles a day, Chief Executive Elon Musk said Friday. On top of that, “fold-out solar wings” could increase that extra range to 30 to 40 miles per day, he said. “Would love this to be self-powered,” Musk tweeted of the Cybertruck solar charging option, adding that the average car in the United States travels 30 miles per day… Photovoltaic panels to charge car batteries haven’t been a big deal on cars so far, since they require a lot of surface area to generate significant power, and even small, aerodynamic electric vehicles demand a lot of that power. However, solar panel efficiency has been gradually increasing, the Cybertruck has a lot of surface area and the photovoltaic industry has been advancing solar cells that can be built into transparent glass — just the thing for a transparent Cybertruck roof. Solar charging could also be a nice way for Tesla to make Cybertrucks more profitable. TechCrunch notes that the trucks will be made from the same stainless steel alloy that SpaceX is using for its Starship — and that Tesla received 146,000 reservations for the vehicle in just the first two days since its announcement. “Of those, 41% picked the most expensive tri-motor option and 42% of future customers chose the dual motor version. The remaining 17% picked the cheapest single-motor model.”