Solar panels to charge an electric car: everything you need to know

There may not be a better pairing than home solar panels and electric cars. Both of these exciting technologies represent a major shift away from how things have been done for a long time. Together they are sparking a revolution in self-reliance while helping to lead to a better future for everyone.

Yes, you can use solar panels to charge an electric car. When the sun is shining, the panels produce power that goes to a solar inverter. Some modern inverters can attach directly to an EV charger, taking the electricity from the panels and putting it right into the car’s battery.

You can even set an inverter to charge an electric car’s battery only when there is excess solar power available. This is called solar priority charging, and it’s a great way to make sure you use all the energy your solar panels make, instead of sending it back to the grid if your utility doesn’t offer net metering.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are more efficient and less expensive than gas cars and aren’t susceptible to the huge fluctuations in gas prices seen in recent years. Our solar-powered EV report shows that electric cars become even cheaper when you fill the battery at home with rooftop solar panels. In addition, pairing an EV with solar panels massively reduces your carbon footprint.

Let’s dive into the numbers to show exactly how much better EVs are compared to gas cars, then explore how many solar panels you might need to offset the energy needs based on the EV in your driveway.

Why you should charge your electric car with solar panels

The reasons to charge your EV with solar panels are simple: it’s the cheapest and cleanest way to fuel a motor vehicle.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the average American drives about 13,500 miles per year or about 40 miles per day. Over the course of a year, the driver of a gas-powered Hyundai Kona will pay around $1,440 for the 420 gallons of gasoline they’d need to go that far (based on 32 mpg fuel economy). Gas prices fluctuate, and due to inflation and the war in Ukraine, they’re basically as high as they’ve ever been:

If the driver chose a Kona EV instead, they’d need to buy 27 kWh of electricity for every 100 miles they drive, or 3,645 kWh per year. At the average electricity price of $0.2282/kWh in California, they’d pay just $830 for their annual driving, saving over $600 compared to gas. In a cheap electricity state like Florida, where electricity costs about $0.1190/kWh, that annual cost to charge an EV drops to about $435, saving the driver $1,000 in fuel costs in a year.

But charging that EV from solar is even better. Let us count the reasons:

• The levelized cost of solar energy is usually cheaper than grid power.

• The cost of grid power goes up over time, while solar panels keep producing electricity without additional cost.

• Solar panels are far less polluting than gasoline or electricity from the grid:

  • 420 gallons of gas results in 8,135 lbs of CO2 emissions

  • 3,645 kWh of California grid power results in 1,837 lbs of CO2 (0.5 lbs/kWh + 35 lbs CO2 from EV lithium battery production)

  • 3,645 kWh of home solar energy results in 321 lbs of CO2 (0.088 lbs/kWh + 35 lbs CO2 from EV battery)

Switching to an EV already means you’re cutting emissions by eliminating the need for gasoline and oil, but electricity from the grid still comes mostly from natural gas and coal. Just a handful of solar panels on your roof is enough to provide energy to charge your first EV, and your second, your third, and so on.

Again, those panels will last at least 25 years. No wonder they call it renewable energy. Who knows—maybe they’ll even help power your first flying car?

Here’s an infographic that shows why EVs and solar panels are a perfect match:

Cost to charge an electric car with solar and without

When you own an electric vehicle, every outlet is potentially a way to get a few more miles into your car’s batteries. Realistically, though, you’ll want to find a Level 2 EV charger for home use or the equivalent of a Tesla Supercharger if you’re out on the road.

There are basically three ways to get the juice that’ll keep your car on the road: the grid, public charging stations, or your own solar panels.

Here’s how much each costs:

Type of charging	Cost	Notes
Grid power at home	$0.10 to $0.40 per kWh	Varies based on location and time; cheapest at night; cost increases over time
Public charging stations	$0.31 to $0.69 per kWh	Varies based on location and charging station owner; additional idle fees; some require monthly subscription; cost increases over time
Solar power at home	Around $0.06/kWh	Levelized over the solar panels' lifetime; additional solar energy can be used to offset electricity bill

Keep in mind that charge costs will vary depending on your car model and the electricity prices in your area. For example, the cost to charge a Tesla will be different than the cost to charge a Kia EV.

Charging from the grid at home

The ongoing cost of fuel from the grid is whatever you currently pay for a kilowatt-hour (kWh). In the United States, that can be between $0.10 and $0.40 depending on where you live, but the average is about $0.15/kWh. For every kWh in your battery, you’ll get about 3 to 4 miles of range, so about 12 kWh will get you a 40-mile round trip every day, at an average cost of $1.80.

That’s how it looks now, but electricity prices rise like everything else, so next year, you might be paying 2 or 3% more for electricity, and over the lifetime of your car, prices could rise much higher. Over the next 25 years, your average cost for a kWh of grid power will be around 19 cents if electricity prices rise 2.8% per year and you live in a state where electricity is currently $0.15/kWh.

At historical rates of energy cost increase, Californians will start out paying $830 per year to charge an EV, and end up paying about $1,300 per year in 20 years when using grid power.

Complicating matters just a bit is the concept of Time-of-Use billing (TOU), which means that electricity costs different amounts at different times of day. As an EV owner, you likely have the option of choosing a TOU plan and charging your car exclusively at night, when electricity is cheapest. TOU billing rates vary widely between states, with some overnight off-peak rates as low as $0.07/kWh, while others such as SDG&E in California bottom out at $0.31/kWh.

Public charging stations

When you’re out in the world and need to top up the “tank,” you’re going to be looking for a public charging station to do it. To a certain extent, this is unavoidable if you own an EV, but you will save a lot of money if you can limit how often you do it.

Of course, there are free EV charging stations located all around the country, but for the most part, you’ll probably be paying for the electricity you need, and paying a lot, at that.

Prices for charging vary by location. For example, Tesla charging stations currently cost around $0.25/kWh for Tesla owners, with higher prices in California and other states with high electricity prices. Services like Electrify America and Blink are even more costly, with a minimum charge of $0.31/kWh, and a maximum of $.69/kWh for fast charging, sometimes dependent on whether you pay a monthly membership fee first.

At $0.31/kWh with a $4 monthly membership fee, charging with Electrify America would cost the owner of our proverbial Hyundai Kona $1,134 for their 3,645 kWh of charging—more than twice the average cost of charging with grid power at home, but still cheaper than gas!

Charging with home solar

If you pay for a solar panel system at your home, you’ll have to either lay out some cash or take a solar loan and pay over time. That’s not a small expense, but you can compare it to the cost of paying for electricity for the next 25 years.

To do that, you calculate the Levelized Cost of Energy, or LCOE, which is just the total cost of installation spread over all the electricity your solar panels will generate in their lifetimes and adjusted for inflation.

The good news here is the LCOE of home solar in the U.S. is currently about $0.06/kWh for systems with a current average solar installation cost of $3.00 per watt (as of February 2023) before the federal solar tax credit. In states with lots of sun, like California, or states with additional incentives, like Massachusetts, solar LCOE is much lower.

Basically, by guaranteeing your fuel source (solar) for the next 25 years, you’ll save a bundle of money on EV charging.

Do you need home solar batteries to store energy for EV charging?

Many people worry that they’ll need a battery such as the Tesla Powerwall to store solar energy they will later use to charge their EV. We’re here to tell you that’s not necessary, and it may not even be very practical.

Take the Tesla Model 3: depending on which version you choose, it will have a battery of between 54 and 82 kWh. You would need between 4 and 6 Powerwalls in order to store enough energy to fill the car’s battery from stored solar energy. Those Powerwalls would cost you at least $30,000, in addition to the cost of solar panels and a car.

Luckily, dropping 30 racks on sleek home batteries is unnecessary. First, you won’t often need to charge the car’s full battery in one go. Second, you’ll likely get net metering benefits, meaning you earn credit for extra solar energy that you send to the grid during the day, which you draw from when charging your car at night. With net metering, the grid acts as your “battery.”

As an added bonus, net metering and TOU billing can combine to make solar car charging a heck of a good deal. When your solar panels make electricity during the day, you earn net metering credits at the higher daytime prices, and are then able to charge the car at the low overnight prices. It’s the best of both worlds!

When solar charging isn’t a good idea

The numbers we gave above are averages that show the general benefits of solar and EVs together. There will always be specific cases where charging an EV from solar isn’t the best choice.

Specifically, if your state doesn’t offer net metering, your utility has very low overnight energy prices on a TOU plan, or your roof isn’t right for solar because it’s too shaded, you might be better off charging your electric car from the grid.

Learn more: 7 reasons why you should hold off on solar panels

What about cars with solar panels built in?

We wish we had better news for you here, but cars with solar cells built into their bodies are not the answer to all the world’s problems. On the sunniest days with the car parked in the perfect, shade-free spot for the whole day, the solar cells will make enough electricity to get the car an extra 10 to 20 miles of range.

How to charge an EV with solar

Now that you know why you should charge an electric car with solar panels, here’s a little more about how to do it, to make sure you add the right number of panels and get a good value for the long term.

Here are the steps to use solar panels to charge your electric car:

• Step 1: Determine how many kWh you need for your car for your driving habits

• Step 2: Figure out how many solar panels you need to make those kWh

• Step 3: Purchase solar equipment that can make that much electricity

• Step 4: Get a Level 2 car charger

• Step 5: Enjoy!

1. Determine how many kWh you need every day

The first step is to find out how many kWh are needed to drive your car. If you keep track of mileage over a year, this step can be pretty easy. If not, you can estimate using an average number of miles per day.

As we said above, the average American drives about 40 miles per day. Let’s use that as a baseline. Here are the most efficient electric cars for 2023, excluding plug-in hybrid cars:

Top-selling U.S. electric vehicles in 2023 by efficiency

Make and model	kWh for 40 mi. daily range*
Lucid Air Pure AWD	9.6
Hyundai Ioniq 6 SE RWD	9.64
Tesla Model 3 RWD	10
Hyundai Kona Electric	10.8
Chevrolet Bolt EV	11.2
Kia EV6 Standard Range RWD	11.2
Tesla Model S	11.2
Tesla Model Y AWD	11.2
Toyota bZ4X	11.2
Chevrolet Bolt EUV	11.6
Kia Niro Electric	11.6
Hyundai Ioniq 5 RWD	12
Nissan LEAF	12
MINI Cooper SE Hardtop 2 door	12.4
Polestar 2 Single Motor	12.4
Subaru Solterra AWD	12.4
Volkswagen ID.4	12.4
Ford Mustang Mach-E RWD	13.2
Audi e-tron GT	16.4
Ford F-150 Lightning 4WD	19.2

_{*Sorted from most efficient to least; data from FuelEconomy.gov; where multiple trim levels exist, the most efficient was chosen to limit each car model to one entry.}

2. How many solar panels you need to charge your electric car

Based on the table above, you’ll need between around 10 and 12 kWh of electricity per day to charge the most efficient electric cars, but even power-hungry premium EVs like the Ford F-150 Lightning need less than 20 kWh per day for 40 miles of range. Now it’s time to figure out how many solar panels you’ll need to make that much electricity.

The average modern solar panel can put out around 400 watts under full sun, and gets between 3 and 7 peak sun hours per day, depending on where you live. That means our solar panel makes between 1.2 to 3.0 kWh of electricity every day (400 x 3 at the low end or 400 x 7.5 at the high end).

Let’s say you get 2 kWh per day, per panel. You’d need just five panels to make enough energy to charge a Tesla Model 3 battery and get 40 miles of range. That’s not very many! Of course, the number of panels increases if you need more than a 40-mile range.

Using the same math, you can determine that every EV on our list above needs just 5 to 7 solar panels to charge it every day. On the high side, you’d need 10 panels to make enough energy to drive 40 miles in a Ford F-150 LIghtning. Clearly, that is a truck that doesn’t sip the sun juice.

3. Buy the equipment needed to charge your electric car with solar

Of course you can’t just stick five solar panels on your roof and plug them into your car. You need a solar panel system and all the equipment that goes with it.

A typical solar EV charging setup would include the following:

• Solar panels on your roof, mounted on metal racks and attached to the roof deck

• Either a string inverter that combines the DC output of the solar panels to AC, or microinverters that convert each panel’s output to AC and send it to a combiner box that connects to your main AC panel

• A Level 2 EV charger (or, combine 2 into 1 with an EV-charging solar inverter like the SolarEdge SE7600H)

4. Enjoy

Congratulations! You now have a solar-powered electric car. To be fair, unless you’re charging during the day when the sun is up, the electrons stored in your car’s batteries won’t be the same ones knocked loose from the silicon in your panels.

Instead, you’ll be producing enough solar electricity to offset your car’s needs over the course of the year, reducing your carbon footprint, and saving money - all at the same time. And those same five panels can produce electricity for decades to come. 25 years of fuel all on a small section of your roof.

The bottom line:

Making the switch from fossil fuels to solar electricity is good for your pocketbook, and also a great way to shrink your carbon footprint. The higher initial cost of an electric car can be quickly offset by the fuel cost savings you’ll see, and many EVs still qualify for state and federal electric vehicle incentives to reduce the upfront cost by $7,500 or more.

The amount of energy you’ll need depends on your car’s battery capacity and your average miles driven per day, but no matter how much electricity you need, you’ll probably save a lot of money if you charge that car with home solar panels.