Jackery Solar Mars Bot Still Follows the Sun at IFA Berlin

Jackery first parked a wheeled solar generator on a CES floor in 2024 and called it Solar Mars Bot. Two years of work later, the same rover is back in public, this time at IFA Berlin 2026, still billed as a future product that can hunt sunlight, charge itself, then roll over to you with a few kilowatt-hours in tow.

The IFA coverage from September 4 approaches this gadget as a conceptual prototype rather than a product that is just around the corner. The Jackery website still displays it under Future Products, despite all the fuss at CES 2026 when it promised a US release after two years of research; since then, a few January publications have floated a second-half 2026 release date. However, Berlin has yet to provide any information on the pricing or exact ship date. We still know that the intended markets are the United States and Europe.

Six modular panels that fold flat for travel sit on top. When you open them, you gain access to up to 600 watts of power. There’s also a double axis arm that allows you to tilt the array up to 60 degrees and turn the entire thing to face the brightest patch of sky. Jackery refers to this little routine as “Solar Light Tracking”: essentially, a sensor detects the ideal angle, then the robot and panels both revolve around, allowing the battery to charge faster than a stationary solar panel left in one spot banging out the same old angle all day.

In terms of power, the body contains a 5,000-watt backup battery, and according to official pages, the inverter side should be able to run any number of appliances up to 3,000 watts, which is plenty for tools, possibly even a small event rig, or a couple of days in a modest little cabin. They demonstrated a unit with three AC outlets at CES in January and were sad that there was no additional USB-C, but you can put it back on the wall and top it up when the sun doesn’t shine. When the light is bad and the battery is running low, the robot should simply plot a route back to a charging base and recharge, and if it does, the tail lights will turn green to indicate that the work has been completed.

Cameras and what they call “AI augmented computer vision” do the rest of the job. We’ve seen follow-me mode, and it worked very well on the CES show floor, with a film of the rover following a humanoid robot around and tapping power on the fly. You can use a 5G radio and a phone app to monitor the battery’s status and location, and then send a call command to have the machine calculate a path to you. It has large hub motors that allow it to traverse difficult terrain, and the housing is made of high-strength plastic and lightweight aluminum that resists weather and corrosion. The early models we saw weighed about 70 kilograms and measured 114 by 82 by 81 centimeters, although Jackery has yet to provide a revised sizing sheet to confirm.

Jackery envisions some serious applications for the device, including off-grid cabins, overlanding, small outdoor events, rescue work, Starlink terminals, and other robots that require a mobile charger. They’ve already received a CES Innovation Award, a TIME Best Inventions Award, iF Design, and A’ Design approval, but they’re not revealing when or how much you’ll be able to get your hands on it. Until then, it’s simply a really nice solar rover sitting at a display at the event, waiting for Jackery to check the “ready to go” box and send it flying.
[Source]