If anyone was also wandering how efficient it would be to have these on the roof of an electric car, if somehow you got a 400W panel on there (regular panels are about 2m²) and left it in the sun for 8 hours, you'd get like half a KWh, which is good for 3km or so on an average EV.

So, not groundbreaking for that application to say the least, but you could technically not have to charge it (on a commute so small that you really should be walking). Of course I'd be blasting the AC before I got to the car and lose some of those gains.

400w x 8 hours is 3.2kwh.

You're not getting peak efficiency for 8 hours.

2kwh sounds like more than "half a kwh".

It also isn't anywhere close to reality. That is a good point in the best chance the car solar panel idea has is if manufacturers lie about what they're capable of.

Have you done a measurement, or are you guessing?

I'm experiencing a new problem lately, which is all the articles about Chinese breakthroughs piling up in my phone's open tabs

I didn't put a solar panel on the roof of my car and tried to charge a battery, if that's what you're asking, I did the math and also have home solar panels. For field testing you could ask someone who does camping, that is where bringing panels with the vehicle would be specially useful anyway.

PS: Now that I think about it, a lot of the bigger SUVs from China have features specially made for campers and whatnot, like the Xiaomi SkyNomad N90 that comes with an actual tent on the roof (pic below) and some off-roaders that have things like built-in oxygen tanks for high altitudes. Maybe it could have success in those niches.

I want these rolled up as caper trailer/rv awnings. One on each side, park pointed North South and drink in the power. Not little awnings either, big ones.

I could also see them being good as those portable awnings people take to the beach. Roll them out instead of fold out, and provide a usb hub for charging.

But at what cost?

If you've measured the output of a stationary home solar panel, I guess one that is flat rather than angled to be more like a car roof, then that counts as a measurement. Or maybe the one in your pic has a solar panel angled towards the sun, which is interesting. I'm more interested in measurements than math right now though.

I think smaller EV's get around 4 miles per KWH. So if you can get 2 KWH/day from solar, that's good enough for a daily grocery run around here.

Would be really awesome to have that kind of flexibility for options. I was looking around for random solar stuff a couple months ago, and saw some articles about Anker showing off a solar panel umbrella a few years ago. Was super psyched because my parents have a deck table that the big umbrella has been messed up beyond use for years. Would be awesome to have something that large for my Solix C1000X (if compatible). But they never released it. So if China starts making these at scale, maybe something like the deck umbrella will finally come out. Really want to have options that can be multipurpose. Awnings would be very nice options like you said.

All China can do is copy.

Oh yea, umbrellas would be cool. I can also see how smaller rolls would be great for camping/backpacking. The current ones are more battery than panel and take forever to recharge via the panel. But a roll the size of a sleeping pad could do a LOT for cellphones and other portable electronics.

cope gringo your country cant even feed its people