Scooters with solar panels look silly because scooters don't have enough surface area to hold solar panels. Hmm… what vehicle does have plenty of surface area? How about cars? Shouldn't they get solar panels first?

It turns out solar panels that increase the battery life of hybrid cars have been manufactured under the radar by Solar Electrical Vehicles since 2005. The company's roof system retails for about $2,000, can be self-installed, and supposedly pays off in saved gas money in 2 to 3 years. If you're spending the premium for a hybrid anyway, the added reserve (20 miles a day) and street cred that you'd get from these panels makes the purchase a no-brainer. We can only hope that solar roof panels will become standard on all cars in the next few years. — S.E. Kramer

Solar Electrical Vehicles, via Treehugger