Mercedes-Benz working on solar paint to charge electric vehicles
EV/AV Report: Mercedes-Benz develops solar paint to charge electric vehicles; while emergency vehicle lights may interrupt autonomous vehicle driving systems.
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Mercedes-Benz is apparently working on a solar paint that may be used to charge electric cars, according to last week’s report on electric and autonomous vehicles.
In order for the photovoltaic material to work, it must first be put as a paste to the body panels in a layer that is five micrometers thick—thinner than a human hair. The manufacturer claims that applying the material to every body panel of a mid-size SUV would result in 118 square feet of surface area that could be used to capture sunlight, which is bigger than a car’s top panel.
According to Mercedes-Benz, if the solar coating is successful, it may capture enough energy to travel about 20,116 kilometers annually in a place with a lot of sunlight, like Los Angeles, California. In contrast, a cloudier city like Stuttgart, Germany, would receive 12,070 kilometers of sunshine annually.
Each body panel must also be galvanically isolated and connected to a power converter that supplies electricity to the motor and/or battery in order for it to operate. Although a wide range of colors would supposedly be possible, deeper hues would help absorb more energy, and the coated body panels could be able to transform sunlight into electricity at an efficiency of 20%.
