I just had a thought. What if you had a Tesla Model X which can tow 2.5 tons, and towed a battery trailer with solar panels, then plugged the car in? Could you theoretically go forever without charging and if you had enough sunlight? Tell me what you think. Can you even charge while the vehicle is moving?
You'll never get enough power from solar panels and keep it a reasonable size. your best bet a is a radio isotope thermoelectric generator but guess what? that will be too heavy and large as well.
The sun puts out about 1 kw per square meter. you'll need a lot of panels just to cruise on the hiway. 750 ish watts per horsepower and towing 5000 pounds you'll be lucky to stay at 60mph with 25hp. you do the math cool idea not going to happen.
Solarpanels convert only %10 of the sunlight into usable electricity. (I know this because I follow science class)
Maybe put alternators on each wheel and and connect them to the battery. Maybe not unlimited range, but a bit more.
This wouldn't help you more than regenerative braking. it actually is technically regenerative braking. if you had a super alternator that puts out more energy than it takes to spin this would work, but than thermodynamics as we know would would be broken.
more resistance and air resistance, and the solar panels are useless nowadays, and besides, good luck finding a good use for it
This would reduce range. Alternators are not 100%efficient. You'd be putting energy in to drive the alternator and then get less out under normal conditions. --- Post updated --- As for original question. There are already events in which purely solar powered cars are raced. It's hugely impractical. These are hyper lightweight super aerodynamic vehicles with every exposed surface covered in panel and as much care and attention put into drive efficiency as possible --- Post updated --- Even lower output
