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Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
I have read about coasting for 35 miles coming down the east side of the Rocky Mountains. Most Interstates are 7% grades or less with a few exceptions. Only a car with good aerodynamics will exceed 70 MPG coasting down the vast majority of grades on US roads, so we are talking about very small percentages of grades where there would be regeneration opportunities.
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Not all roads are interstates, and mountain roads (or the hilly equivalents east of the Mississippi) are probably less likely than most to be. On the vast majority, your speed is not limited by aerodynamics, but by tire adhesion going around hairpin turns.
Just from my own experience, the top speed of a Honda Insight coming down east of Carson Pass on Calif 88 (steep but fairly straight) is somewhat in excess of 80 mph, with regen. There are a lot of places where you'd want/need to go slower, so I need to brake in addition to using max regen.
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That way those who have the capability to collect energy with solar panels can use that energy to drive their cars. My guess would be that is less than .0001 percent of the vehicle operators in the US...
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This is a bit chicken/egg, though. As for instance, my monthly power bill runs about $40, which doesn't give me much of an incentive to spend $10-20K on a solar system. But if I had a PHEV that would suit my needs, I would have a much greater incentive to install solar.