You’d think an electric bike and a few solar panels would go a lot farther in a desert environment. Solarpunk version of mad max.

Raiding racks of solar panels and batteries is way less cool

Also would solar panels be harder to cobble together than an engine?

Nah, easier. At least if you have access to solar panels and metal for wiring.

Now making a solar panel from scratch, that’s a whole different story… At that point, just go with solar thermal low tech steam turbine or something

yeah, you need an industrial base to build from scratch. But that’s not that different if you want to build engines and oil refining from scratch.

I would argue that the steam and even combustion engine are much easier to build than a solar panel, if you know how.

If he was given detailed instructions, I believe a mediaeval blacksmith could have build a steam engine. As soon as we go to 17th/18th century, we can probably build a combustion engine. Sure, it will be a bad engine, but it will do the job of burning refined oil and spinning.

But a solar panel? You need clean rooms, which need air purification, you need working knowledge of semiconductor manufacturing. Much harder than a solar thermal steam engine and a few lead or zinc batteries.