Come to think of it, I’ve actually suspected that newly installed solar panels don’t sometimes charge when they’re supposed to. Make sure the weather is CLEAR and SUNNY. If that doesn’t charge batteries, then restart the game.
Also, there was recently a bug that caused like 20x the intended fuel consumption. It’s been fixed since. Is it possible you are using the buggy version?
And you can’t really “connect parts wrong”. Solar panel and battery locations don’t matter, for example.[/quote]
I found the problem with the car battery, apparently when I restarted the engine after the electric motor stopped working it didn’t switch over to the engine that had appropriate fuel. It ran the electric motor off the car battery until that died too. The storage batteries are charging now too, not sure if they’re finally getting enough sun or if they can charge from the alternator. I’m surprised that I apparently have to turn the car on and then select which engine I’m using instead of it asking which engine I’m starting. Running across a solar car and taking all it’s upgraded solar panels probably helped.