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Next-gen Prius: What will a little sunshine get you?

8 Jul 2008

The Toyota Prius will reportedly soon sport solar panels to feed the hybrid vehicle's power supply. While solar energy is free and clean, it's only enough to help out a little with the car's AC system, not power its engine. Critics say Toyota might be wiser to direct its research and development toward plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Automaker Toyota will include solar panels on some of its new cars, according to reports in Japan's Nikkei newspaper. Toyota will add the energy-catching panels to the roof of its hybrid Prius as soon as Spring 2009.

The panels would reportedly be used to power the Prius' electronics -- specifically the air conditioning system, which would need two to five kilowatts of energy to run. Details are few, but Toyota plans to deliver a third-generation redesigned Prius next year.

The Prius is a gasoline/electric hybrid that captures the kinetic energy normally lost during braking, as well as using its gasoline engine, to charge its battery. The Prius then runs on electric power whenever it's most efficient to do so.

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