Hyundai and Kia have announced that they will implement solar charging technology on selected vehicles, incorporating photovoltaic panels into the roof or bonnet of the cars.
These solar panels will support internal combustion, hybrid, and electric vehicles with electric power, allowing for increased fuel efficiency and range.
Hyundai Motor Group (which owns both the Hyundai and Kia vehicle brands) is developing three types of solar roof charging systems, the first of which will be applied to hybrid models and will be mounted to an ordinary roof.
The second-generation solar roof system will be semi-transparent and will be available for internal combustion vehicles, serving as a sunroof due to their transparency.
The last generation of this technology will see a combination of bonnet and roof-mounted panels working together to provide the maximum amount of energy to the car’s battery.
“In the future, various types of electricity generating technologies, including the solar charging system, will be connected to vehicles,” said Hyundai executive vice president of engineering Jeong-Gil Park.
“This will enable them to develop from a passive device that consumes energy to a solution that actively generates energy,” Park said.
Hyundai said it would launch the first generation of this technology into its vehicles after 2019.