Ford will display its first solar-powered vehicle at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week, the company announced on Thursday.

 

The Ford CMAX Solar Energi Concept car will have 1.5 square meters of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells on its roof to generate power to charge the car's battery.

 

By themselves, the PV solar panels generate only 300W of power -- not enough to charge the vehicle's battery in one day. Ford, however, said the car will be coupled with a carport that has solar concentrating lens atop it. The magnifying lens, called a Fresnel lens, will concentrate about 10 times the solar energy that the vehicle can produce alone, so the car can be recharged in a single day.

 

The acrylic carport canopy would also be tied into the car's onboard computer via software that would automatically move the car as the sun moves from east to west, keeping it under the highest concentration of solar light.

 

Combined with the PV carport, the CMAX Solar Energi Concept car has the same performance as the Ford C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid vehicle, which draws its power from the electric grid, the company said.

 

With a full charge, the C-MAX Solar Energi Concept car will have the same driving range as the conventional C-MAX Energi -- up to 620 miles, including up to 21 electric-only miles. The C-MAX Solar will also continue to sport a charging station cord and plug so that drivers retain the option to power up via the grid, if necessary.

 

After C-MAX Solar Energi Concept is shown at CES next week, Ford and Georgia Tech will begin testing the vehicle in numerous real-world scenarios. The outcome of those tests will help to determine whether the vehicle is feasible as a production car.

 

The Ford C-MAX Energi will operate at an estimated 108 miles per gallon (MPG) in city driving conditions and 92 MPG on highways, for a combined average 100 MPG.