Jackery has turned the humble rooftop tent into a powerful solar generator that allows any car to escape the grid for a weekend or more. Although it's just a concept on display at CES right now, Jackery says he'll put the tent into production sometime near the end of 2024.
The retractable solar panels are said to produce up to 1000W when the car is parked and the store is open and facing south. That's enough to generate 4.96 kWh per day in the western U.S., or 4 kWh as you go east, according to Jackery's estimates. There's no mention of its wind resistance, but that's nothing to worry about for a concept parked on an ugly carpet inside the Las Vegas convention center.
Rooftop tents can now be equipped with solar panels manufactured by numerous companies, including Jackery. But they tend to be lightweight, flexible panels so as not to overwhelm the tent's folding mechanism, and they rarely cover the entire surface because the dimensions don't match. This results in a relatively poor solar conversion efficiency for the available surface area. Jackery's rooftop tent maximizes power generation by filling the entire roof with solar cells and then extending them outward, while carefully integrating the wiring needed to power Jackery's power station.
CES concept tent powers separate space E1000 Plus 1.26kWh power station, capable of 2000W AC output. That's enough to run a 1150W portable air conditioner for about an hour, a 60W car refrigerator for about 45 hours, or a 900W electric stove for one hour; More if you add LFP expansion batteries for up to 5 kWh of total energy storage. The E1000 Plus can also be charged from the car while driving (7 hours to maximum) or from a wall socket (1.7 hours).
It is unclear who Jackery will partner with in producing the tent. However, the concept is equipped with a memory foam mattress, insulation, dimmable lighting with color control, and waterproof fabric with blackout windows. Jackery says the production version will come “complete with an onboard charging module” (whatever that means) and details will be released sometime in the fourth quarter.
It's too early to call it a trend, but I'm glad to see solar generator specialists like Jackery and Ecoflow (via their partnership with Winnebago) embrace the community of overlanders, vanlifers and weekend warriors with fully integrated solutions that make it easy to take modern work-life conveniences off the grid.
