The Smart Forvision concept car was introduced by Daimler last year.
Daimler had worked with BASF to create the Forvision’s design which had some interesting feature, including solar panels on the roof that combined the gathering effects of transparent solar panels with OLED lighting cells.
Now BASF and Philips have announced a breakthrough in bringing the light technology to life. Their project comes with sandwiching transparent solar panels with transparent OLED lighting cells. The car roof can be covered with structure that lets in daylight for drivers and turns on opaque when switched on, allowing for diffuse lighting from the ceiling at night and all powered by solar panels.
OLED light cells can be just 1.8 milimeters thick and transparent too, allowing them to work underneath the solar panels. The high energy efficiency of OLED light cells allows them to run on energy generated from solar panels.
According to companies the lighting is ready for integration into car roofs but the OLED technology is expensive to manufacture. Philips agrees to invest in an OLED production line in order to lower the costs.
Daimler didn’t mention if it is going to produce Smart Forvision with OLED lighting cells roof. However, it has an all-electric version of the Smart Fortwo as a possible candidate for integration of the OLED solar roof in future.
