Wish list for next generation Prius Plug-in

As noted there isn't enough room for one that would do that. Nissan tried a solar panel that charges the *accessory* battery in the Leaf, but it doesn't seem to work at all well. Which is a shame, because they (Leafs) are even worse about killing their 12 volt batteries than the Prius.

 

Yeah but doesn't the Leaf install them on just the spoiler?

 

Actually, putting solar panels on the roof is not entirely out of the question. I calculated the total area of the roof (between the rubber gaskets) with an additional amount on the rear spoiler to be just over 19 sq ft. That's nothing to sneeze at since NREL did the same thing on just the roof of a Gen II Prius (Does Car-Mounted Solar Make Sense? | MIT Technology Review) and got 215 watts (165 watts typical). To keep things in perspective, a typical 100 watt panel is slightly under 7 sq ft.

Is a full roof of glass not doable? My wife's Venza panoramic moon roof puts glass on almost the entire roof, even up to the windshield. I know because I put Rain-X on it instead of wax and its huge.

 

can you translate that into up front cost and payback on, say 8 hours a day in full sun?

 

A 100 watt panel is $150 at Amazon. No clue what Toyota would charge. I'd just want it to power the 12V accessories not the car.

According to the article their solar panel added 5 miles of charge per day which to me means about a kilowatt. $300 buys, what, about 2700 kWh.

 

That's the cost to me, but of course if you're paying for electricity at a Chargepoint station and paying $1 minimum everyday then you'd be caught up in less than a year.

 

I have a 110 watt solar panel, roughly as big as the roof of my Prius Plug-in, which I have seen exceeding it's rating, producing 150 watts of actual power in direct sunlight. By my calculations, at a nominal output of 100 watts, it could add about 1 kilowatt-hour for each ten hours of direct sunlight. That's more than enough to fully charge the auxiliary battery and approximately a quarter of the total storage capacity of the EV battery, which I would consider significant.

 

it's nothing to sneeze at, but toyota incorporating it into the roof? $$$$$ imo.

 

Ha ha you are probably right. Although if there is a runoff between 5 miles more battery and solar panels I think the cost will be a wash.
The main positive about the extra battery is that it works in the dark.
The main positive about the solar cells, is they would give the people who purchase this car with no chance of plugging in an opportunity of having at least a little bit of EV.

 

can't argue with that, it would be pretty sweet!

 

It is a bit more complicated than that. To start with, the (theoretical) 100 watts being produced at peak sun has to power the charging controller...maybe 5 watts just as a guess. Next the ~12v has to be boosted to 200+ volts via a transformer...which might be 70-80% efficient...probably less because the 12v from the panel can fade in and out and isn't a nice stable voltage like from a wall socket...so the transformer has to boost the voltage higher than it might need to otherwise and have a shutoff for when a cloud passes over, etc.

And then the car is always carrying around an extra 30-40 lbs of solar panel and 5 lbs of electronics, slightly degrading mpg.

There is a good reason the Prius with solar only operated simple variable speed DC fans -- totally simple circuits and it doesn't matter much if the fans slow down when the sun is partially blocked.

Pointed (virtually) straight up is also not the optimum position for solar cells, so you are not going to get the rated watts except for possibly a couple of hours a day for a few months of the year. The rest of the time, even when sunny, you'll get some fraction of that...but be incurring the extra weight penalty 100% of the time.

If you want to buy solar cells it is a good idea to put them somewhere where they collect the maximum sunlight, every day for 20+ years so that their energy returned on energy invested is maximized...not on a moving vehicle that has a poor angle to the sun, may be parked in the shade, may get totaled before end-of-useful life and may be unable to charge because the car battery is already full. In total a home roof mounted solar cell probably will generate 10x as many kwh as a car roof mounted solar cell over the useful life of the cell.

Mike

 

Depends where you live. In some places, the sun is overhead for a good part of the day, so you could get several good hours of charging time, and one kilowatt/hr per day is not unreasonable. It wouldn't be several hundred pounds of extra weight; the actual silicon wafers are not very heavy at all, mounted into the roof, without the need for a separate support frame. Modern circuitry is very efficient at converting power, so I'm not concerned about much load-loss. Nobody is expecting the panel to run the car all day, but every bit sure helps, especially when sunlight is free.

 

Well its more like 17 lbs for a 100 watt panel. Toyota also incorporates a sun roof with their solar cells for the Prius 3 and 4, so maybe that may double the weight.

Exactly, which why I wanted it for just running fans and other 12v accessories. I really hate it when I lose 1 mile of EV range just to run the fans.

Nothing better for powering the PiP.

 

Another thing on my wish-list would be a bit more power in "power" mode. A full 200 hp from the Synergy Drive would be good. I mean once you switch to power mode, you no longer care about the economy anyway.

 

#6 Automatic Grill Blockers - Really an $18000 Chevy has them but we have to use foam pipe insulation? Oh and maybe trump Chevy and put them on the upper grill as well.

 

In the current models, the PWR mode doesn't do anything other than change the curve of the throttle pedal's power demand vs. amount of throttle depression . In other words, the power demand rises faster for a given amount of throttle pedal depression in PWR mode. But the end point is still the same: floor the throttle in ECO or PWR, and the demand is the same. It just feels snappier.

 

It's been done:

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/solar-cars-not-likely-anytime-soon/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

 

But we're not asking about a purely solar powered vehicle (though there is one that made the news earlier last year, a single seater 3 wheleler or something) - we just want a trickle charge so those who park outside, can't find a plug, can charge!

I for one think it's possible with lighter materials. At least Ford is testing it.

One thing I suggested on another thread is have the roof solar with high efficiency panels (increase the price by over $1k but worth it!) and then when in park have an option for more panels to come down the windshield and back window to keep the car cool and trickle charge the battery.

We should be able to get 300 watts with current day technology from that surface area,. Trickle charge the battery so on a fully sunny day the regular PiP can get at least some range (maybe about 3 miles) on a charge. But I'd also like to see the trickle charge work while driving like charges do when the wheels spin. I'd buy it. In the end that aspect becomes more valuable no matter where you park (generally outside though)

 

I agree, there may be a few challenges along the way, but that has never stopped the inventors from trying and sometimes suceeding!

 

i would like a display of the internal 124 mile ice run countdown.