The Nissan Sakura Extending Solar Roof Could Add A Surprising Amount Of EV Range

• Nissan reveals a bolt-on solar charging roof for its best-selling Sakura electric kei car.
• The solar roof can add up to 1,860 miles of free range per year in ideal conditions.
• Nissan says the 36 or so miles of electricity that it can provide per week is enough to almost fully meet the needs of many Sakura EV drivers.

The last thing you would expect to see on top of a tiny Nissan Sakura electric kei car is a solar panel array. But Nissan now offers one, and while it does make a tall and narrow car look even more top-heavy, it also promises to add a lot of free range per year—as long as the sun is out, of course.

Nissan calls the solar roof the Ao-Solar Extender. That is (probably) a double entendre because it not only extends the vehicle’s range, but it also extends outward to expose more solar cells to the Sun’s rays.

Gallery: Nissan Ao-Solar Extender

It’s basically two solar panels, one on top of the other, that can generate up to 500 watts of power in ideal conditions when fully extended.

Without the second panel extended, that drops to 300 watts on a sunny day or 80 watts when it’s cloudy and raining. The car doesn’t just charge when stationary, although you can’t drive with the array extended, so you can’t expect it to produce the full output on the move.

Nissan Ao-Solar Extender

Photo by: Nissan

That may not seem like a lot of power, but Nissan says it can still add up to some 1,860 miles (3,000 km) of free solar-generated range per year, which works out to about 36 miles (58 km) per week. The Sakura EV has a battery capacity of just 20 kWh. That’s just 4 kWh more than the original Mitsubishi i-MiEV, yet it goes a lot further on one charge, with a claimed range of 112 miles (180 km).

You can buy one of these cars in Japan for 2.54 million yen, which is just under $17,000 at current exchange rates. Nissan didn’t say how much this solar power solution will cost, but it should shed more light when it’s officially shown to the public this week at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show, which will also host the unveiling of the first-ever kei car from a non-Japanese manufacturer, the BYD Racco.

Nissan’s idea with the solar array is to reduce dependence on charging infrastructure, adding that “driving data from Sakura owners shows that many primarily travel short distances for errands and school runs, suggesting that solar-generated power could nearly eliminate the need for grid-based charging for a significant portion of owners.” It could also serve as a power source in the event of a blackout caused by a natural disaster, which in earthquake-prone Japan would make this car and its solar roof add-on extra desirable.

Is it the most elegant solution we’ve ever seen? Probably not. Would we say no to more free EV range from the sun? Also no.