optimistic to the point of Insanity to think a roof panel can power a car.
I have a toy hydrogen powered car, bought on sale for $10 marked down from a $130 price. It was supposed to indoctrinate kids about green powered cars. The stupid car takes like an hour to charge in sunlight via a solar panel, creating electricity to make hydrogen from water in a fuel cell, which then runs the car for a few minutes. The toy car was a failure, just like it's big brothers being built for adults. Far better ways to make electricity than solar roof panels.
True. The sunlight energy density isn't there, even if the panel was 100% efficient.
Does this person realize there isn’t even enough power from the sun hitting that area of their roof the entire day to support the average daily commute even if the solar panels and the batteries had 100% efficiency?
One option of Gen. 3 Prius has solar panels on the roof. However this panel is only used to power fans when the car is parked. I have no idea if it is of any use, though.
That roof panel probably peaks at 200W output, in best conditions. Unless you are 23.5° or closer to the equator, the Sun will be always not in the best position - the roof is not tilted toward the Sun. But even if you can get 200W out of it, a 16 kWh battery in Volt would require 80 hours of optimal conditions to charge. Given that the Sun is not standing still in the sky, the practical answer is that the roof panel would be about sufficient to compensate for self-discharge of Volt's battery.
“optimistic to the point of Insanity to think a roof panel can power a car.”
Actually, it could.
Disclaimer: it will take a month for that roof panel to charge up the battery. :-)