Why did Nissan eliminate solar roof panel?

My 2015 SL had a small solar panel on the roof that produced a little charge to keep the 12 volts battery up. It worked pretty well here in Florida.

Why did they not carry that on with the newer generations?

There's no practical need for a small solar panel to generate a few watt-hours per day (at best) for 12V battery charging, when the vehicle is already carrying kilowatt-hours of power and the necessary hardware to accomplish the same task more completely and reliably. Unnecessary cost. It was plainly there to make a point rather than to solve a technical problem.

Whatever defects were present in the 12V charging algorithm are not an argument for a solar panel to make up the deficit, but rather an improvement in the algorithm.

The 2018 cars definitely keep the 12 volt battery charged ok, and the 2015+ (maybe 2014+) cars also seem to do so. It was an unnecessary expense.

I would like to see an aftermarket company offer a maybe 300 watt hour with of solar PV installed on the roof. For those who park outside at work, the extra 5-6 miles a day would feel good (even for say...1K) and could be quite handy if needing to limp a mile (at 1-2 mph) in an extreme condition.

DougWantsALeaf said:

I would like to see an aftermarket company offer a maybe 300 watt hour solar install for the roof.

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What's "300 watt hour" solar?

DougWantsALeaf said:

I would like to see an aftermarket company offer a maybe 300 watt hour solar install for the roof. For those who park outside at work, the extra 5-6 miles a day would feel good (even for say...1K) and could be quite handy if needing to limp a mile (at 1-2 mph) in an extreme condition.

Click to expand...

The trick is transforming that meager power into a form that can be used to charge a 400V traction pack.

You might like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khWpN0RSb2k

We also had https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=6316.