Although it’s pretty certain that every major car manufacturer has “plans” to develop a solar-powered vehicle, Toyota appears to be actually putting out PR about it. According to the Nikkei, they’ve got plans for what is likely a Prius augmented by solar panels on it and elsewhere, and later for a solar-only vehicle as well.
Toyota could use a boost, as in the face of poor world market conditions they are doing as poorly as others, especially in the US. Solar power is hot here (and popular as well – wocka wocka), and a vehicle like what they describe would be almost certain to sell. I seriously doubt it’s anywhere near the production stage, but it doesn’t hurt to get the word out early.
As an aside, is anyone else as mesmerized by pictures of the sun as I am?
Amazing… not sure what is taking them so long!
Jon
http://buzvia.com – Where’s Your Traffic Going?
Have you even checked the Nikkei Devin? There is no article about Toyota developing a solar car, only an article about using solar panels on houses to rechrge an EV.
???
“According to The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle, and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes. The automaker later hopes to develop a model totally powered by solar cells on the vehicle, the newspaper said without citing sources.”
Devin “According to the Nikkei” is a secondhand source, you obviously havent even read the Nikkei article.
What is in the Nikkei is a story about advances in construction technologies — of houses. It reads like this: “Homes that can use electric cars as power storage batteries is just one of the new construction technologies expected to receive attention in 2009. Such technology was jointly developed by Tostem Housing Institute Co., which belongs to JS Group Corp, Mitsubishi Corp., the Tokyo Institute of Technology and others. Their final goal is to develop a system whereby electric cars serve as a battery for homes.There is no Toyota mentioned anywhere in the article.
Are you sure you’re reading the same article my linked one refers to? I don’t think that an AP story would state something so clearly if nothing like that was in the source.
Sounds like an interesting concept. I imagine they must be a long way off from being able to put anything like that in to development, but it will be interesting to keep an eye out for some updates.
Personally, my first thought is that this would be pretty inefficient, but enough people have their car parked outside while they’re at work or school that it might have a shot at actually generating a noticeable amount of power.
Any one have some numbers on what they could do?
Yeah, I believe this one.
well, as much as I’d love this technology to work I have a feeling the hydrogen hybrid cars are going to pip them. I watched a tv programme on them a few weeks ag and I was very impressed with what I saw