Revolutionary Better Prius

. I am working on the perpetual motion machine. Seriously, should somebody produce a machine which ran forever, on a unknown energy source. What do you think the Press would call it ? ........Yes, a perpetual motion machine.

 

I can't wait until you talk to (your) aliens so they can teach you the LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE and not to blur theorems and prejudices while you finish your perpetual motion machine design. Unknown energy is hard to come by and when you identify the energy source, the perpetual motion machine then becomes a normal non-thermoenergy-law-breaking-machine.

While I admire your determination in taking the idea of solar roof panels sooooooooooooooooooooooooo far out, I find your logic dizzying. But who knows, it may just inspire someone to build a revolutionary charging roof or new Prius.

 

The biggest problem we have in Prii is the first 5 minutes of ICE operation warm-up and low MPG. If the solar power could somehow heat the catalytic converter or something this would benefit all PiP and HEV Prii.

 

This is one of my concerns about the Plug-In Prius: the first few minutes when the gas engine starts are going to be rough, lousy mileage and a stone-cold start.

Our current Prius has the block heater, and it's almost without exception plugged in, for a couple of hours before the first start up of the day. Makes a big difference in warm-up time. Once recently I had to cold-start it, and was surprised at how rough it sounded, for the first minute or so.

The block heater draws 400 watts, and an hour's use is likely the low limit for decent warm-up.

 

I've lived through a complete NY winter now with the PIP (low this past winter was single digit temps with a 3+ ft snow storm thrown in the mix) with my PIP sitting outside 100% of the time exposed to the elements for 14+ hrs between starts. I never even once experienced a rough start up when the ICE kicked in. As a matter of fact- most times the only way I knew the ICE was actually running was to look down at the instantaneous mpg graph and see 50mpg versus 999mpg when running on the EV alone. The PIP still runs on EV battery when it first starts the ICE. From what I've experienced first hand, in the first min or two of ICE startup the ICE is basically idling without providing any motive force to the drivetrain, once it (or the CAT) reaches a certain temp- then it gets connected and actually starts pushing the car- avoiding a rough running period. Even if you try to force the ICE to instantly start up by disengaging the "EV" mode button- the ECU still runs the car on EV untill the ICE can properly warm up.

 

I think the best place for consumer solar panels are on rooftops, not on a car. A panel on your home's rooftop can continually produce electricity. A panel on the car cannot always provide power or usable power.

 

I live out on Long Island...
If I lived in NYC proper- I'd probably get an old Checker Marathon battle cruiser to do my bidding on the mean streets

 

Toyota engineers considered using the PHV battery to bring up the catalytic converter temp. They dropped the idea when they found out the amount of energy required. Solar power is much lower than PHV battery can provide.

It is actually a complete opposite. You can be accelerating (not floored) into highway speed with a cold engine warming up and still see instantaneous 50+ MPG. The PHV battery has 55hp to assist.

 

...this thread is for stretch objectives...the OP is going to think of something Toyota missed

 

Egadds! Volvo has come out with a concept model of the very thing Inferno was talking about!

Volvo's Folding Solar Panels Are Basically The Coolest Thing Ever

 

Charging an PiP is like running your hair dryer at "high" for 3 hours. If you're lucky, you may get a full charge in 10 days. That's because you may only get 8 hours of good sun light per day. Here's another problem, the solar panels aren't cheap. You better off invest in a generator powered by wind. I think they are cheaper and produce more power.

 

Most cold starts happen in the morning when people are going to work. Do you really think the sun is strong enough to heat up anything at 7:00am?

 

Nope would need to store in a batt or how about something like an engine block heater but this thing heats up your system parts. Also I was really thinking every time you stop for 5 minutes, the system goes down to 25 MPG if there was a way to hold a little heat in and generate a little heating.

 

How about go full Volvo and make a fold-out solar pavilion?
Volvo's Fold-Out Solar Charger Looks Like Sci-Fi Couture | Popular Science

 

Runs a bit too close to a syllogism with an undistributed middle:

Some beliefs widely held to be true in the past have turned out to be wrong
The laws of thermodynamics are widely held to be true
Therefore the laws of thermodynamics may well be wrong

 

I don't know how much this would cost to build, but using induction to charge a car is a better way to go. For example, every time you stop at a light, you get a charge. In the city, they could even put in an entire lane for EV so that they could get power from an induction power source. I have an electric tooth brush that gets its charge from induction.

 

There's a flaw in your assumption. My wife and I decided to pay a higher premium for a hybrid (Prius) because we want to save money on gas and as a side benefit, it's good for the environment. However, in order to save enough money to justify the higher initial cost, we had to turn the Prius into our main vehicle. We drive the Prius 365 days a year unless we got snowed in or we took the van for vacation. Therefore, if someone is planning to recover the cost of the solar panels and the higher cost of the hybrid, the chances are, the car is not going to be sitting and do nothing on the weekends long enough to get charged.

From my experience, the technology that sells well is the one that make sense to majority of the consumers.