Ford Concept Car Sports Solar Panels

You won't find it at a dealership anytime soon, but one of Ford's featured demonstrations at the 2014 International CES next week will be a C-MAX hybrid vehicle that has had its roof tricked out with SunPower solar panels.
The idea is to enable the vehicle's electric battery to replenish itself even if there's not an electric vehicle charger handy. But it's a slow process: it takes about an hour to store enough charge to drive the car one mile on electric power.
So, Ford researchers have developed a special charging canopy outfitted with a concentrating Fresnel lens that moves with the sun to accelerate the charging process – it's the same sort of magnifying glass used in lighthouses.
With the aid of this concentrator, the panels can generate enough electricity (about 8 kilowatt-hours) over the course of one day to propel the car up to 21 miles on its electric motor, said Mike Tinskey, global director of vehicle electrification and infrastructure for Ford.
The system works by concentrating the sun's rays onto the panels, and then slowly adjusting the vehicle's position under the canopy over the course of the day as the sun moves from east to west – using the electric engine to move it gradually. "We looked at tracking systems, but they were too complex and expensive, so we asked ourselves, 'Why can't the vehicle move instead,' Tinskey said.
There are obviously lots of things that have been tested before something like this becomes a viable commercial proposition. For example: how to keep people from walking under a canopy when a car isn't there, which presents a safety challenge.
But Ford plans to test this idea as another option for corporate campuses: the canopies would provide shelter, while allowing employees to top off the battery on their car for shorter commutes.
This is also an idea that might have legs in rural areas where the grid isn't reliable or, for that matter, available at all.
Ford's partners in this test are SunPower and the Georgia Institute of Technology, which is also a partner in the Ford MyEnergi Lifestyle initiative. That effort is exploring how solar systems and plug-in hybrids might be used by homeowners to more efficiently manage home energy use.
This isn't the first-ever solar vehicle: some of the lightweight cars for the X Prize competitions have experimented with them. But it's the first time one of the big automakers has adapted one of its existing hybrid models for such a use. "As far as I can tell, it's the first solar-powered, plug-in hybrid," Tinskey said.