Photovoltaics for hybrid automobiles

Hybrid automobiles have recently been introduced to the motoring public. These vehicles have within them components; a battery, a computer, inverters, and electric traction motors which can readily use photovoltaic generated electricity to produce propulsion. This plus the vehicles´ high efficiency suggests the possibility of using solar energy to further decrease already low fuel consumption. This decrease is calculated as a function of insolation, solar panel efficiency, and car related parameters such as weight, frontal area, coefficient of drag, distance driven daily, and battery size. Calculations are generally based on one of the Environmental Protection Agency´s driving cycles and show that in favorable cases solar energy can save about $4.60 of gasoline per watt of photovoltaic power.