Are Solar-Powered Cars Worth It?

If you live in the Northeast, the answer seems to be yes.

On sunny days, solar panels on my roof generate about two times more electricity than my house consumes. I could send the extra power back to the grid and drive a gas car, but wondered what the savings would be if the extra electricity was used to charge an EV.

After factoring in New York’s latitude, weather, and seasons the panels make about 1,600 kWh of “extra” electricity per year¹ That’s enough to power a Tesla vehicle for 5,300 miles.²

If I sold the extra electricity back to the utility and drove a gas-powered car, I’d make $160 on the electricity³ but spend $530 on gas.⁴ So the net cost would be about $370 per year.

Is driving on sunlight worth it? It seems like it would save about $370 per year (and 10 trips to the gas station). So the answer is yes.

—

¹ nrel.gov/gis/solar.html
² 300 watt hours per mile
³ Utility pays about $0.10 per kWh
⁴ $2.80/gallon @ 28 MPG