Solar-powered cars are making a comeback, but not in the way you might imagine. Forget about charging your car while parked at the beach without a charging station. The new solution from China uses solar energy, but with a more modest goal.
This innovation won’t power your car’s engine, but it will use solar energy to run some of the vehicle’s onboard services. The roof becomes a solar panel, harnessing the sun’s power to keep your car’s systems running.
Fuyao Glass’s Solar-Powered Roof
Fuyao Glass, a leading global producer of automotive glass, has developed a new semi-transparent solar-powered panoramic roof. The unique feature is that light can still enter the cabin, and you can see through the glass. Integrated cells in the roof convert part of the solar radiation into electricity.
According to Fuyao, the system can produce about 150 watts per square meter. This is significant, considering that a standard photovoltaic panel produces around 200 W/m². However, the available surface area on a car is limited.
BYD’s Potential Integration
Unconfirmed reports suggest that BYD might offer this roof as an option on some of its models, priced at around 8,000 yuan (approximately 1,000 euros). The installed surface could reach a maximum power of about 720 W.
This might not be enough to power a standard electric car’s engine, but it’s sufficient for less demanding tasks. The energy could keep connectivity and surveillance systems active when the car is parked, power some onboard services, or contribute to climate control, reducing the main battery’s consumption. Fuyao presents its product not just for electric vehicles but also for hybrids and conventional cars.
The Reality of Solar-Powered Cars
The caution is not unwarranted. Turning a car into a mobile photovoltaic power plant has proven to be much more challenging than it seems. The most famous example is Lightyear.
The Dutch startup produced the Lightyear 0, an extremely aerodynamic sedan covered with about five square meters of solar cells. In the best conditions, it could recover tens of kilometers of range per day. However, the price of around 250,000 euros and the project’s costs proved unsustainable, and the company declared bankruptcy in 2026.
A similar fate befell the German electric monospace Sono Sion. The car’s body incorporated hundreds of solar cells, and the project garnered over 45,000 pre-orders. But in 2026, Sono Motors canceled the automotive program due to lack of capital. The company definitively ceased operations on July 31, 2026 and its technological assets were put up for sale.
Aptera’s Survival
The last major holdout in the solar car market is Aptera. The American three-wheeled vehicle focuses on extreme aerodynamics and lightweight design, with panels capable of generating about 400-500 W in the best conditions. Aptera doesn’t promise infinite travel powered by the sun but aims to recover enough energy during stops to cover a significant portion of daily commutes.
Aptera is still alive: in, it raised about 9 million dollars and is building new units for validation, with the goal of delivering the first units by the end of the year. Perhaps the lesson learned after years of attempts is that the sun can’t replace the charging station but can give the battery a helping hand. Fuyao Glass’s new roof starts from this premise.
