Sounds kind of like fluff like GM's hydrogen prototype cars but still an interesting read.





Report: Toyota developing solar powered green car

TOKYO – Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy in an effort to turn around its struggling business with a futuristic ecological car, a top business daily reported Thursday.

The Nikkei newspaper, however, said it will be years before the planned vehicle will be available on the market. Toyota's offices were closed Thursday and officials were not immediately available for comment.

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.

The solar car is part of efforts by Japan's top automaker to grow during hard times, The Nikkei said.

In December, Toyota stunned the nation by announcing it will slip into its first operating loss in 70 years, as it gets battered by a global slump, especially in the key U.S. market. The surging yen has also hurt the earnings of Japanese automakers.

Still, Toyota is a leader in green technology and executives have stressed they won't cut back on environmental research despite its troubles.

Toyota, the manufacturer of the Lexus luxury car and Camry sedan, has already begun using solar panels at its Tsutsumi plant in central Japan to produce some of its own electricity.

The solar panels on the roofs add up in size to the equivalent of 60 tennis courts and produce enough electricity to power 500 homes, according to Toyota. That reduces 740 tons a year of carbon dioxide emissions and is equal to using 1,500 barrels of crude oil.

Toyota is also likely to indirectly gain expertise in solar energy when its partner in developing and producing hybrid batteries, Panasonic Corp., takes over Japanese rival Sanyo Electric Co., a leader in solar energy, early next year.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090101/...n_solar_toyota

 

How many football fields of worth of solar cells will be needed for the roof of this car.

First one to put a solar panel on the roof of a hybrid is going to score some major green points, but it will be all for PR and not practical reasons. There is barely enough room on the roof to run the stereo.

 

I agree with you, Killer.

I think this is dead end PR stuff like GM's "pledged" hydrogen car.

The only difference is that Toyota can probably afford to burn money developing the thing, and lose money (like they do on the Prius) on each one sold if it makes it to market.

I can see solar as part of a Hybrid system, but on it's own, I don't see it being practical. It would be all but useless in Washington State most of the year.

 

Ignoring cost, using current technolgy
100 cm2 can get you 3.6 watts of power.
That's over 1000 watts if you cover the roof, trunk and hood of a car.
That's a nice stereo

 

Not going to stop the granola, nut huggers from buying it up in droves and then preaching to everyone how much more green they are than everyone else. Ask me how I know....

Still a good idea and i would love to see this technology extend to the Volt. Heck I would love to convert my home to solar. If they could engineer a transparent solar panel that could be used as a window that would be a real breakthrough IMO. Think high rise building when you think of windows.

 

Seattle area has always been San Francisco's twin?

 

"My Bike Is More Green Then Your Hybrid"

 

Big deal. Seriously if there is room on the vehicle, solar panels could easily be added to any EV, and solar panels can easily be added to any home.

FWIW, solar panels are not a very efficent means for generating electricity... however, if they are your only option...

 

At least politically.

 

They are taking my idea... a solar powered car cover for when you are at work during the day.

 

I would think that the solar powered part is nothing compared to the battery technology needed to store the energy and the parts to efficiently use the energy.

You put solar panels on surfaces that see the sun and allow them to feed the batteries. That is the simple part. Developer better solar panels would be a good idea as well.

 

There was a documentary I seen a while back where the solar cells are roughly the size of a housing shingle now and produced the same wattage as their much larger predecessors. I will try to find it.

Efficient or not the sun is not going anywhere any time soon and the energy could be wasted limitlessly as the Earth would just absorb or reflect it anyways. Honestly this is one of the only sources of energy where the iE is not really part of the equation.

 

did evertone forget about the solar car already. it was tried as a prototype. It failed. Not because the power could not be made to run it using the surface of the car, but the occupants had horrible conditions inside the cab (like being way to warm). After it made it's trip, it was never seen again.

 

So basically anything the human race tries once without success should be shelved indefinitely?

 

That was not where I was going. the point was is it is not a NEW thing. IMO it is all about PR for toyota at this point. even with the cell tech of today, the car would have to be too small, and they would still have to figure out how to deal with the massive heat issue. I do not think that an all solar car will be feasible until the cells are reaching above the 80% range. Not only that but look at house solar cells. The only places you are really able to use them effectively are in high light areas. (rules out the northern US pretty much canada is completely out. The closer to the equator the better.. The exact same thing will apply to solar cars. So in the end it could maybe be electric, but just imagine how the power companies will rub thier collective hands together just thinking about the joys of spiking that price up.