Good point, if I get you right.
I did spend some time with this.
Design guidelines:
1.) The panel must be easily and rapidly deployable = Press-button-No-human-intervention-fully-autonomous. Relative position towards The Sun must be free, so no need to move the vehicle for the panel. There are situations where the car position cannot be chosen.
2.) It should be deployable in an urban environment without the hassle or without it taking too much space around the vehicle – meaning not to draw too much attention.
3.) It must be light enough to be operated by parts readily available.
4.) it must be light to carry around. Every pound counts.
The panel works even when not deployed; it just gives less power.
The "standard" solution is just to put 3-5 panels on shelves and pull them out to each free side with rails. This has drawbacks on high latitudes. Other side panels are easily partially shaded by panel structure itself. Such panels need more control electronics that add more weigh or are just simply useless. The weight itself is in many cases restrictive.
The other way is to fold them to open doubling the area.
Ecos Power Cube
https://www.ecospheretech.com/enviro...gies/powercube
is an excellent fixed base solution to Afganistan where U.S. military gallon cost over $400:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/real-co...bases-400-gal/
The best way would, of course, to use panels as shade to cover the vehicle, but that might exceed weight limits. I have not gone to this yet.
On high latitudes, you gain around 30% less than at the equator due to declination. It can be compensated by pointing the panel at the sun. This thing is not designed to equator +-23.5°
BTW: I wonder why people are adding generators when this is available:
http://www.militarysystems-tech.com/...6-Brochure.pdf
You can find it on eBay as surplus for $400-900. The free market price is around $12000. 570A 28V equals something like 11KW usable energy. Max take from the truck engine is about 20kW. The best thing there is no extra motor to carry around.