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Jackery has converted the humble rooftop tent into a powerful solar generator that lets any car escape the grid for a weekend or longer. Although it\u2019s just a concept on show at CES right now, Jackery says it will put the tent into production sometime near the end of 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The retractable solar panels are said to produce up to 1000W when the car is parked and the tent is open and facing south. That\u2019s enough to generate 4.96kWh per day in the western US, or 4kWh as you move east, according to Jackery\u2019s estimates. There\u2019s no mention of its resilience to wind, but that\u2019s hardly a concern for a concept parked on ugly carpet inside the Las Vegas convention center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Rooftop tents can already be fitted with solar panels made by any number of companies, including Jackery. But those tend to be lightweight flexible panels so as to not overwhelm the tent\u2019s folding mechanism, and they rarely cover the entire surface area due to mismatched dimensions. That results in relatively poor solar conversion efficiency for the available surface area. Jackery\u2019s rooftop tent maximizes power generation by filling the entire roof with solar cells, and then extending them outward, while also neatly integrating the wiring required to feed the Jackery power station. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The CES concept tent feeds a separate\u00a01.26kWh E1000 Plus power station<\/a>, capable of 2000W of AC output. That\u2019s enough to run a 1150W portable air conditioner for about one hour, a 60W car fridge for about 45 hours, or a 900W electric cooker for an hour \u2014 longer if you add LFP expansion batteries for up to 5kWh of total energy storage. The E1000 Plus can also be charged from the car while driving (7 hours to full) or wall jack (1.7 hours).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s unclear who Jackery is partnering with on the tent production. Nevertheless, the concept is fitted with a memory foam mattress, insulation, dimmable lighting with color control, and waterproof fabric with blackout windows. Jackery says that the production version will come \u201ccomplete with an onboard charging module\u201d (whatever that means) with details to follow sometime in Q4.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s too early to call it a trend, but I\u2019m happy to see solar generator specialists like Jackery and Ecoflow (via its\u00a0partnership with Winnebago<\/a>) embrace the community of overlanders, vanlifers, and weekend warriors with fully integrated solutions that make it easy to take modern work\/life comforts off the grid. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n