Toyota Eyes The Sun: Plans To Increase The Range Of Its Prius Hybrid With A Solar Roof

Toyota is looking to add some extra juice to one of its hybrid vehicles with solar cells.

Prius, the Japanese auto maker¡¯s plug-in hybrid offering since long, will now offer a 44.5 km of extra range, thanks to a new solar panel on the roof of the car.

To turn the concept into a production car, Toyota has teamed up with Sharp and NEDO, a Japanese national research and development organization.

The idea to power a vehicle through solar energy has been gaining momentum for a few years now. In fact, one startup named Lightyear, even came up with a car recently that completely runs on solar energy, thanks to a full glass roof with solar cells embedded in it. Lightyear One, as the solar vehicle is called, promises a range of 725 km and can draw its energy from plug-in charging stations as well.

Toyota¡¯s new endeavour would work in a similar fashion.

Toyota Prius demo car with solar panels. (Image: Toyota)

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Toyota imagines its Prius, essentially a plug-in hybrid, to have a new solar roof manufactured by Sharp, that will offer an additional range to the car by capturing the sun¡¯s energy and adding it to the battery. In a new press release by the company, it mentions that the solar cells are just 0.03mm thick and are yet able to deliver around 860 watts of power, even charging the vehicle while it is on the move. Toyota mentions a conversion efficiency of more than 34 percent through the cells.

This is not the first time that the automobile giant is trying something of the sorts. Toyota had come up with a similar PHV (Photo-voltaic) charging system for its Prius earlier as well. The upgrade, however, is significant this time, as the earlier system could not charge the car while moving and its efficiency was much less as well. Toyota claims that the new system has a 4.8-times better efficiency in comparison with the commercial model Prius PHV.

Toyota Prius PHV demo car. (Image: Toyota)

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For the trials, Toyota has developed a demo car with the solar battery panel spread across its roof, hood, rear hatch door and rear hatch door garnish. The company will soon be conducting trial runs of it under various driving conditions in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Tokyo, and other areas.

Data collected will then be shared with Sharp and NEDO, based on the ¡°reduction of CO2 emissions and the improvement in convenience, including the number of times a vehicle requires charging.¡± No timeline has been given for the testing though and hence there is also no clue about when the production model will hit the market, or if it ever will.

As we now know that harnessing the solar energy for a moving vehicle is now an agenda for multiple auto makers, the question still looms though, whether it is the best possible and most efficient solution for mobility? Why not instead just install solar panels at homes or charging stations? Such installations can power much more in addition to a car and are comparatively an easier installation.

We can even use such panels for dedicated charging stations for electric cars, making the complete transportation system green! Such a system to be used in a car is complex and not to forget, costly, splurging the cost of a vehicle through the roof. Lightyear One, for instance, is expected to retail at $170,000 once launched. That is around $70,000 costlier than the costliest Tesla Model S.

So, does that mean clean mobility is a practice only the rich can follow? Not an ideal solution now, is it?