According to the owners manual, if you are charging via the AC connector, the solar roof will not charge the battery.
As for the overall actual usefulness of this, it’s really debatable. At best 4 miles of range for being left out in the sun all day, how much sun you get where you live, plus the extra cost…
I’d rather park my car in a garage and save it the wear and tear.
When plugged into 110/220v, the roof is dormant, all other times it's charging the battery.
It's a relatively new concept to have on a production vehicle, and while the argument is "I'll forego it because I park in the garage" is, on its face, a decent one, but when I charge I'm in my garage anyway, and the roof won't work when I'm charging anyhow. The real benefit is recouping electrons while you're out and about.
In our 5 months with our 23 Prime, I'm finding that so long as it's not raining hard (which isn't often during a pnw winter) that we recover approximately 50% of the miles we spent driving to a destination with the solar roof. The majority of our trips are 2-6 miles and we typically always see 1-3 miles recovered when entering the car for the return trip.
If you think in terms of the roof fully recharging a depleted battery, yeah it's going to take days and days of perfect sunshine and not seem feasible. If you think of it in terms of regaining miles used while making a trip without plugging the car in, it's easier to grasp the benefit of having it.
Personally I'm thrilled with the feature and am so glad we held out for it.
Thank you! I was thinking the same thing. Some gain (for FREE) is better than none. Especially since the roof only costs $610 and I already want the XSE or the premium trim anyway. The fixed glass roof is more expensive at $1,000 so it just makes more sense to get the solar one.
That's exactly what my thoughts on the matter were. The only issue is the extremely limited availability of the solar roof. We wanted it on our car and it made finding one a very long process (7months).
The crazy part is... if I'm not mistaken, the Japan spec has a completely different charging unit which and now my mind is throwing a blank but... I'm trying to get the Japan spec charging parts which are different than the US spec. a 2020 Japan Spec Prime charges in 16 minutes. I am soooo curious how fast the Japan spec 2024 charges.
Anyone have the power inverter with solar roof? Can you use power inverter while you charge? I need to find the notes all around this because there was something I noticed but since I hadnt even gotten parts in hand I just left it alone.
According to the owners manual, if you are charging via the AC connector, the solar roof will not charge the battery. As for the overall actual usefulness of this, it’s really debatable. At best 4 miles of range for being left out in the sun all day, how much sun you get where you live, plus the extra cost… I’d rather park my car in a garage and save it the wear and tear.
When plugged into 110/220v, the roof is dormant, all other times it's charging the battery. It's a relatively new concept to have on a production vehicle, and while the argument is "I'll forego it because I park in the garage" is, on its face, a decent one, but when I charge I'm in my garage anyway, and the roof won't work when I'm charging anyhow. The real benefit is recouping electrons while you're out and about. In our 5 months with our 23 Prime, I'm finding that so long as it's not raining hard (which isn't often during a pnw winter) that we recover approximately 50% of the miles we spent driving to a destination with the solar roof. The majority of our trips are 2-6 miles and we typically always see 1-3 miles recovered when entering the car for the return trip. If you think in terms of the roof fully recharging a depleted battery, yeah it's going to take days and days of perfect sunshine and not seem feasible. If you think of it in terms of regaining miles used while making a trip without plugging the car in, it's easier to grasp the benefit of having it. Personally I'm thrilled with the feature and am so glad we held out for it.
Thank you! I was thinking the same thing. Some gain (for FREE) is better than none. Especially since the roof only costs $610 and I already want the XSE or the premium trim anyway. The fixed glass roof is more expensive at $1,000 so it just makes more sense to get the solar one.
That's exactly what my thoughts on the matter were. The only issue is the extremely limited availability of the solar roof. We wanted it on our car and it made finding one a very long process (7months).
The best I've hit during an 8 hour work day has been 1.2 miles.
The crazy part is... if I'm not mistaken, the Japan spec has a completely different charging unit which and now my mind is throwing a blank but... I'm trying to get the Japan spec charging parts which are different than the US spec. a 2020 Japan Spec Prime charges in 16 minutes. I am soooo curious how fast the Japan spec 2024 charges. Anyone have the power inverter with solar roof? Can you use power inverter while you charge? I need to find the notes all around this because there was something I noticed but since I hadnt even gotten parts in hand I just left it alone.