How Many Solar Panels to Charge an Electric Car?

1 Jan 2025

Discover how many solar panels you need to charge an EV, key factors affecting charging, and how solar battery storage can optimize energy use.

Take the first step toward energy independence today. get a quote

On this page

What Does It Depend On?
The Calculation
How to Calculate System Size Required
Solar Inverter with Car Charging Port

A standard domestic solar panel installation with 8 - 12 panels will provide enough electricity to partially charge an electric car, giving you free fuel to drive around town day to day.

Power your home with Upvolt’s smart solar solutions.

What Does It Depend On?

The exact calculation depends on many factors, like which electric vehicle EV you have, how many miles you drive, the way you drive and on how much sun you get. Most of us will want to charge our vehicles overnight and in this case solar battery storage will also be required.

The Calculation

For the purposes of this calculation, we have selected one of the most popular electric vehicles in the UK, the Nissan Leaf together with an average UK 4 kW solar installation.

The Nissan Leaf was the first mass-produced EV to go on sale in the UK and over 24,000 Leafs were registered in the UK in 2018, it's also the all time best-selling pure-EV in the UK (https://www.nextgreencar.com/electric-cars/statistics/ September 2019) and therefore an ideal choice for the purposes of our calculation.

The current standard second generation Nissan Leaf model has a 40kWh battery. Charging the car using a regular wall plug (2.3 kW) takes around 18 hours 30 minutes and gives you a range of around 135 miles (again depending on the weather, terrain and driving style). That means an hours charging will give you around 7 miles drive.

Using a specially installed charge point will add an installation cost but will allow quicker charging (around 7 hours for a full charge).

The average domestic solar installation is around 4kW. That generates 3,400 kWh a year = 9 kWh / day.

Stay Connected with Upvolt

Get the latest updates on energy innovations, smart solutions, and exclusive offers.

How to Calculate System Size Required

Calculate your average daily electricity consumption (based on your electricity bill).

Calculate your average daily mileage.

Calculate anticipated daily kwh electricity requirement.

Multiply by 365 days of the year and divide by 1000 to give the suggested kWh size of pv system needed.

Solar Inverter with Car Charging Port

More information about SolarEdge inverters with a built in car charging port! This saves consumer cost of course and also provides the opportunity of the car charging to take the solar electricity as priority over the house if so desired. The car charging then becomes part of the customers online solar App.