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Friday January 2, 2009
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Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a solar-powered vehicle as an alternative to its popular hybrid Prius and Camry models, the Associated Press is reporting.
Toyota, which also builds luxury-themed Lexus cars, is developing the program in two stages. First, the automaker is working on a method to power a car partially from built-in solar cells, and then recharged via electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes, according to The Nikkei, a leading business daily in Japan. Later, the next step will be to develop a version that's totally powered by solar cells mounted on the car. In both cases, production models are still years away.
Today, Toyota uses solar panels at its central Japan plant to produce some electricity, according to the article. "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," Toyota said in a statement. "That reduces 740 tons a year of carbon dioxide emissions and is equal to using 1,500 barrels of crude oil." (Image credit: AutoblogGreen)
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January 2, 2009 2:08 PM
Great. Now let's hope the American car companies are still around in a few years do the same thing. Detroit...learn a lesson here. Innovation creates market share. That is a very simple business tactic that should have been taught to you in college.
January 4, 2009 8:35 AM
Now in SI units: Well, in urban operation you may well have 75 Wh per km, that gives you more range with solar (may be 2m²*0,5kW*4hrs*0,25=1kWh/75Wh=13km) - but the small vehicle should flip out more solar cells to be viable or position itself allways optimally in the sun. This introduces a new term "solar mover" fleeing shadow ;-)
January 6, 2009 6:19 PM
The on-car solar cells are, for now, largely to "top off" the batteries and extend the range. The batteries are primarily charged by larger panels at home (or the plant, as the case may be). If the cells are large enough, you may also be able to park in the sun at work and get enough power to drive home, but you'll probably still need some power from external charging.
Solar cells powerful enough to directly drive the engine (with some extra energy to charge batteries for shady areas) are still a ways off, but that's where they're headed. Obviously, there will need to be an alternate charging method for rainy days, probably plugging it into a standard 120v outlet, but this is a valid alternate energy vehicle idea.
The key, however, will be keeping it affordable as a production model. Will Toyota be able to make these for under $30,000? Preferably under $20,000? If so, I'm all for it. Everyone will buy the free-energy cars, and it will drive Detroit out of business, despite Washington's efforts to prop them up. If it's just a concept and only affordable for the rich, it's a waste of time, other than as a scientific proof-of-concept.
January 6, 2009 10:11 PM
At least somebody is thinking of the future. While any solar powered vehicle would have to be light in weight, there is nothing to say that the solar cells couldn't be used to charge up the batteries to some extent. At least this will help reduce the green house gas foot-print what-ever the energy source.