Tesla allows owners to recharge with solar power
Tesla’s latest move is a new feature for people who are serious about buying into the ecosystem.
Tesla drivers with home solar and Powerwall chargers now have an in-app option to charge their vehicle exclusively through excess solar energy.
Automakers are starting to roll out the settings in May, with a rather fancy name: Drive on Sunshine. The setting is now more straightforwardly dubbed “Charge on Solar; it’s available to people in the US and Canada with newer Teslas (2021 onwards). The options look like this:
Image Credit: Tesla
The rise of electric vehicles and the ubiquity of solar panels has driven countless dreamers to suspect that the two technologies will meet.
Solar powered cars as we know them dates back to the 1950’s with Sunmobile GM, the Corvette modded it reported to capture sufficient solar energy to roll across the stage at the Chicago auto show. Cars with solar roofs have come a long way since then (see: effort by Lightyear, Fisherkarma, Toyota And even Tesla), but such solar-roofed vehicles still haven’t hit the road in serious numbers.
Meanwhile, Tesla has long facilitated solar-powered charging via solar panels and home chargers, and the automaker’s Charge on Solar feature appears to offer certain drivers another level of control over how they recharge.
