Solar charging kit in the works for Rivian

[zymolysis]

The elephant in the room is this line in the Rivian warranty. Being forced to use the charge port means you're taking at least 20-25% off the amount of energy recovered and can only be done while the vehicle is stationary. (I actually did a test a few weeks ago, if you plug a charger in while the vehicle is in drive it goes to emergency park.) I wouldn't pay for a commercial system that could charge under this exclusion unless they made a legally enforceable guarantee that they would cover all costs related to a malfunction.

After one or more of these aftermarket systems has proven itself, perhaps Rivian will see fit to partner with one of them to offer it as an option on future Rivians. It'd probably never be offered on Rivians in the field, so I would never get to use one in that fashion.
But a solar cell roof is what I wanted - not that piece of crap pano window. If Rivian doesn't do this in the future, you can bet some of its competitors will.

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[BigSkies]

As EV's as camping & work vehicles proliferate, so will the electric accessories that go with them. People are doing all types of cool stuff with refrigerators, stoves, lights, power tools, etc. As the number of these vehicles proliferate, so will the opportunities to do something with that massive battery.

Something like this would help displace the need for the currently popular solar + battery setups I'm seeing at a lot of campsites these days. You already have the battery. And the solar setup could at least top off the usage from all of these other things that will eventually be plugged in. The car makers will have to set up the cars to take power from the bed though. It's probably something that won't exist for a few years, and maybe take a decade for it to become common.

 

[emoore]

How large are those panels? The top of the atmosphere sees ~1370 W/m^2 and at the surface is closer to 1200 W/m^2. At 22.5% efficiency that's only around 270 W/m^s of solar panel, assuming ideal alignment to zenith at solar noon. Those power ratings seem way too high.

They are pretty standard size solar panels the are on everyone’s roofs.

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