The photo at left comes along with the comment:

A creative Tesla owner recently took sustainability into his own hands by installing a solar roof on his Model 3, testing whether it could generate enough energy to charge the electric vehicle independently—and it worked. The modification integrates solar panels seamlessly onto the car’s roof, capturing sunlight and converting it into electricity to supplement or even fully power the vehicle’s battery.

I saw a Prius with PV roof at a car show in 2009 when I first got interested EVs. They look cool, and if that’s important to you, please be my guest.

The reason they are a rarity though is math and physics. At most places on the planet, Earth receives about 1000 Watts/square meter. Assuming 8 hours per day of high-grade sunshine, 3.5 square meters of PV, an efficiency of 25%, that’s 250 Watthours/day. This translates to about one mile per day for the typical EV.

If you want to fully power your 100 KWhr Tesla, that’s 400 days, just over a year–not too compelling.

https://www.2greenenergy.com/2026/01/12/roof-mounted-solar-pv-for-your-ev/