Tech & Biz

Toyota plans Prius with solar panels

by stvalentine | July 6, 2008 at 11:36 pm

608 views | 5 Recommendations | 7 comments

Toyota plans to install solar panels on the roof of the next generation of Prius hybrid cars, according to a report in Monday's edition of the Nikkei newspaper.

The panels, which are expected to begin appearing on the high-end version of the gasoline-hybrid car as early as next spring, will supply part of the two to five kilowatts needed to power the air conditioning, MarketWatch cited the Japanese business daily as reporting. Kyocera will reportedly supply the panels.

The move would make Toyota the first major automaker to incorporate a solar-power generation system into a mass-produced car.

Prius was introduced in 1997 and has since sold more than 1 million vehicles worldwide. The car was redesigned in 2003, and a third generation has been widely expected to appear soon.

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everchanging

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 01:41 on July 7th, 2008

stvalentine, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Its a start, yet why the baby steps. We need to reinvent the wheel in order to reinvent the automobile and thats a step we could live with.

Yuliya Talmazan

at 07:32 on July 7th, 2008

I heard CBC saying this morning that the move to introduce solar panels on hybrids is merely a publicity stunt, as the solar panels that Toyota is planning to use don't generate a lot of energy but cost terrific amounts of money.

saabrobz

at 09:23 on July 7th, 2008

cmars

at 11:19 on July 7th, 2008

My car's a celebrity ^_^

cmars has contributed a photo to this story.

sharique23in

at 22:27 on July 7th, 2008

Prius is a great car.Environment friendly,fuel efficient and smart engine.Its a car of of the future and for intellectual buyers.I congratulate Toyota for their R&D,farsightedness, innovations and making healthy life of the public.By using these cars we make our world a safer place to live in.

sharique23in has contributed a photo to this story.

Anonymous (not verified)

at 08:33 on July 8th, 2008

If the panels generate so little power, what's the point? Just part of the two to five kW for the air-con? My battery electric car has a 2.5kW motor for the whole thing! OK, it's only a single-seater, and it has no air-con, but this shows the kind of radical change that would be required for a truly efficient car. Forget air-con, forget power steering, traction control, heavyweight chassis and bodywork, forget the IC engine, and just build a car that'll get a person from A to B and keep the rain off.