Solar Assisted PHEV light-duty Pickup

The greater need for trucks to be more powerful while becoming more fuel efficient is a daunting task. It seems that the time has come to integrate the power that petroleum and algae biofuels offer, while complimenting the process with the efficiency that an electric vehicle provides. This could be accomplished first off by starting with the smaller pickup models such as the Ford Ranger and the Chevy S-10. You would use the same process that the Chevy Volt uses.  The second step is a little bit tricky. The idea is to add solar capability for emergency and complimentary power. How this is achieved can be done one of two ways: The first is simply add a retractable, thin-film solar array over the bed of the truck. The second one, which is where things get tricky, is to have the paint be engineered to be conductive. That way, whenever your truck is in the sun it can make use of whatever energy possible. It would look something like this (PV panels shown)