Featured Toyota testing new solar powered Prius

I saw that - my first thought - in the tropics, the first thing we think about is "where can I park out of the sun". Plus - here, most people have a garage or undercover parking - it would be an odd eventuality to have to move the car into the sun during the day. I guess we could leave the A/C running - but that then defeats the object of the exercise.

Worth trying - but could be partly self-defeating, though would gain something while driving along.

 

If Toyota added an extra 75-100 hp to MG2 and battery (or SuperCap) to support the higher power draw up to 80 mph, it would finally reach the low end of the Tesla Model 3 performance range. Yet it would still have +56 MPG on the highway and more around town.

I appreciate the solar cell effort but it jacks up the price of the car without saving to the 0-60 time. It seeks to find the 'greenies' and 'cheapies' but the Tesla and other pudding EVs are already competing for those customers. But if you get a Prius to the point that it matches my Model 3 performance at traffic light ... well that would be noticed.

My goal is to get gasoline addicted 'gear heads' out of their rides into something that satisfies their 'acceleration' feel. If they'd wanted efficiency, well there has been at least two decades to scrape us out of that customer pool.

Bob Wilson (a "cheapie")

 

i appreciate the r&d, but don't expect anything by the next prius generation.

the conundrum as mentioned above is how much time your car spends in the sun (both parked and driven)

and how costs will compare to home solar and those it is available to, plus efficiencies in commercial solar production.

 

"The solar Sharp-made solar cells are of the triple-junction compound type, sporting a conversion efficiency of 34 percent, ... a thin film of about 0.03 mm in thickness that can wrap around the curves ..."

A terrestrial product of this sort is what I needed for an unrelated product proposal a decade ago. The closest thing then was a non-flexible Being-$pectrolab device meant for $pace application$, and the third junction being useless down at ground level due to obstruction by the atmosphere. The flexible thin films available then had only single digit efficiencies, significantly short of the energy harvest outputs I needed at that time.

With additional squeezing on the load side that should be possible since, that thing ought to be workable now. If I were still in the industry, and if the company believed there was still sufficient demand ...

 

agree on looks.

so we have some people whose cars spend much of the day in the sun

some that can charge at home

some with solar home option

can the 5th seat remain with the solar roof?

will they ever solve the hatch space problem?

do we have any idea when the cost would make it attractive?

does not sound like a big seller to me, even if they can pull it off, but still great r&d for the future.

 

that guy makes me crazy

looks like we've come a long way, and have even further to go

 

A lot of people put these on - my Dad did every time he parked and his Camry, at 25 yrs old still had one of the few un-cracked dashboards.



They are available for back windows, but harder to install, so we don't see them much. I just put a steering wheel cover on as I've had 3 cracked steering wheels in the sun. The first time I had a car with a leather wheel, I took it to get the windows tinted and the chap suggested a steering wheel cover should be used, as leather regularly in the sun is unlikely to stand up for a long life - plus they're often on a urethane or similar base material.

 

Who, Robert LLlweweeellyyleenn?

 

I've been using the Sun shields in my cars for years.

 

Dad's was easy to put on - just unfold it, put the bottom into the corner between the dashboard and windscreen - the top folds around the mirror and is held in place by the sun-visors.

 

For the extra cost of getting solar panels, not always orientated to the sun and sometimes in the shade, it makes more sense to spend the money to locate them on your house roof with a 30 year time horizon. Putting solar on cars could be a waste of resources given that cars don't last that long and some cars get in wrecks.

Do the math...start with the fact that 1 square meter of sunlight at 100% efficiency gives you about 1 kw.

Mike

 

Just turn on the lights in your garage to charge it!

 

Yep - just like perpetual motion.

Of course you could do that. Put SOLAR Panels on the roof of the garage, and have them light sufficient lights in the garage to charge the car. But - it'd be better to just put a power outlet in the garage powered by SOLAR & plug the PRIME in.

I remember comments in the past in magazine articles time and time again "why can't a hybrid/EV just charge it's batteries as it drives along and so never have to plug in or fill with petrol?"

 

Clearly they just need to elongate the car a bit to get enough panels for useful charges. Maybe they'll do a 96-seat double articulated bendybus version of it?