Make My Electric Ranchero Conversion with Solar Panels, Please

by Ronald
(Phoenix, AZ)

Photo by John Lloyd

Photo by John Lloyd

I want to convert my 1969 Ranchero GT to electric with solar panels as well to recharge on go or without a charging station.

Hi, Ronald -
The picture above is a 1970 Ranchero, but I trust they're not too different?

Well, I have some bad news about your plan for solar panels that will recharge your Ranchero on the move: even with all that lovely surface area to install solar panels on your car, there's just not enough space at current efficiency rates (20% in the best case scenario now - 2019) to restore charge as quickly as you can deplete it by driving your car.

You'd still be much better off installing a solar array on your roof at home with some batteries for storage, then plugging in your newly-converted Ranchero GT at home to take advantage of all that free electricity.

That's not to say solar cars aren't coming! There's a German company called Sono Motors that is building a new electric minivan-looking SUV (coming soon - in development stage right now) which offers 34 km (21 miles) of additional range provided by solar panels embedded into the roof of the car.

Sounds like a winner to me!

Best,
Lynne

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Solar lol really
by: Anonymous

Solar simply won't power that beast but my 08 Prius is solar , yea surprise. I had to have the rear bumper painted it was around $700 the price was very high and I asked why ? Answer is the rear bumper has a solar array that helps charge the battery. The rear bumper says Prius on it, that is actually the solar array. I think solar is a good idea to add to your ranchero also hybrid conversion electric driveshaft plus a hydrogen converter then a performance ratio for the ring and pinion. 3:70 or 3:90 . All of this is going to increase your in town mileage and performance.

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