[Bryan]

As an aspiring Overlander researching intently I could easily imagine Rivian installing I believe they’re called zamp plugs in order to plug in mobile solar or mounting rigid solar to the bed racks. Also, in the interest of being fully off grid solar would be a great charging solution and in the world of conspiracy it would be nice to know the security measures Rivian has in place to protect their customers from data breaches by hackers.

 

[O. horridus]

Here's a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation. Choose your own numbers if you don't like mine. What's the most solar you can reasonably fit on the truck or as portable panels? A few hundred watts? Certainly less than 1kW. You're not going to get the full output at all times of the day or all times of the year. Figure 5kWh/day on average, best case. (That's 10 miles of range a day, assuming 1kW of solar panels). The battery capacity of the large pack is 135kWh. That means it might take on average 4 weeks to fill up that battery using only the solar on the truck. And you won't be charging overnight as you sleep - you need to be parked in the sun during the day, not traveling. And finally, what is the cost of that solar? I think you will find that spending thousands of dollars really isn't worth it for just a few miles of range per day. If all you're doing is commuting a short distance to work and parking outside in the sun then it might be convenient to have and you might think it's worth the cost. Or if you're simply using it to power your camp kitchen and refrigerator while on an extended boondock to keep from running down your battery, then it might be worth it.

For me, I am rarely in one spot for more than a night or two at a time, so I personally don't think it's worth it.

 

[Bryan]

Here's a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation. Choose your own numbers if you don't like mine. What's the most solar you can reasonably fit on the truck or as portable panels? A few hundred watts? Certainly less than 1kW. You're not going to get the full output at all times of the day or all times of the year. Figure 5kWh/day on average, best case. (That's 10 miles of range a day, assuming 1kW of solar panels). The battery capacity of the large pack is 135kWh. That means it might take on average 4 weeks to fill up that battery using only the solar on the truck. And you won't be charging overnight as you sleep - you need to be parked in the sun during the day, not traveling. And finally, what is the cost of that solar? I think you will find that spending thousands of dollars really isn't worth it for just a few miles of range per day. If all you're doing is commuting a short distance to work and parking outside in the sun then it might be convenient to have and you might think it's worth the cost. Or if you're simply using it to power your camp kitchen and refrigerator while on an extended boondock to keep from running down your battery, then it might be worth it.

For me, I am rarely in one spot for more than a night or two at a time, so I personally don't think it's worth it.

Great points, I’m still learning the whole wattage conversions but my intentions if I had a Rivian is to pull an over landing trailer like the Mission Overlander that could have 400 watts of solar and you could mount 200-400 watt panels on the truck bed racks that charge an Ecoflow solar generator along with the Eco flow battery packs. That might not add much for the trucks range but as you said it will off set the kitchen usage or help charge the trailers ion phosphate batteries.

 

[ColeAK]

My 7kw solar array on my home takes up ~450 ft^2 and weighs over 1k lbs.

It will likely be a very long time before solar can do anything meaningful toward charging an EV for over landing.