Many manufacturers are going into production or creating concepts with integrated solar panels in the roof or body of the car.

Although under normal use this will not provide all the vehicles power it will make a significant contribution when you factor in the decreasing cost of solar panels and the rising cost of fossil fuel.

Here are some examples:

Solar Toyota Prius:

http://www.solarelectricalvehicles.com/

Fisker Karma:

http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/

Saab 9 X concept:

http://www.saab.com/main/GLOBAL/en/9X_biohybrid/index.shtml

BMW concept with solar roof:

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/02/22/geneva-08-officially-official-the-bmw-vision-efficientdynamic/

Ford Reflex concept:

http://www.automobilemag.com/auto_shows/naias_2006/0601_ford_reflex_concept/index.html

Giugiaro Quantara concept:

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/05/geneva-2008-italdesign-giugiaro-quantara-oddity/

and many more…

The Fisker Karma can already be ordered from the Fisker website – the first ones are scheduled for delivery in 2009.

The music theme is called ‘sunshine’.

The wattage of the average car roof panel is around 250 watts. If you covered the entire car in solar film or panels you would get around 1000 watts or more.

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