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[ETL]

[blueunicorn6]

Big deal.

Lots of cars have sunroofs.

[Drango]

Bird poop magnet.

[ETL]

[Moonman62]

Reminds me of what they used to call birth control glasses.

[MV=PY]

Cool! Good idea.

[mrsmith]

Bah.

Cars generate wind when they’re in operation. Just put a wind turbine on ‘em...

[Steven Tyler]

Will acidic bird crap eat through the top layer

[Secret Agent Man]

I am all for a free market private car company making this car a buyable option for those that want it.

[1FreeAmerican]

Not that new of an idea! Mazda put a solar roof panel on it’s 929 in 1992 to run an AC or charge the battery.

[Celtic Conservative]

For an electric car this would seem to be a no brainer. I always thought a solar panel covered carport would be a way to passively recharge an electric car. My money is on hydrogen fuel cells. But the hangup for that, once again is cost and infrastructure. Hydrogen fuel cell cars already have a range similar to gasoline vehicles, and refueling them is no more difficult than a gas car.

[KarlInOhio]

A Prius is 183 inches long and 69 inches wide. It looks like the panels have about 75% coverage, so that's about 6 square meters. That's a maximum of 6 kilowatts. At 25% efficiency that's 1.5kW maximum of charging or driving power. Wikipedia lists a Tesla 3 as using 26 kWh/100 miles. Assuming the Prius is similar, you would have enough charge after an hour in noon sun at the equater to drive a little more than 5 miles.

[Chode]

bout enough to run the dome light, if you don't open the doors to often

[moovova]

I patented a 857 mile long extension cord...but nobody seemed interested.

[_longranger81]

Screw that—I’m gonna put a mast and a damned bowsprit on my Honda Odyssey and raise me a big fat ol’ spinnaker to haul me down Rt. 95.

[ConservativeMind]

Get back to me when they do this with wind turbines.

[Vince Ferrer]

I don't think they will sell a car like this, but they are testing out some tech, like integrating the solar cells into the electrical system. No one except a fanatic would buy an ugly car like this.

Various companies are working on solar cells that are integrated with windows, so that the windows of office buildings, for example, can produce power. Others are working on solar cells that can be applied like paint. If Toyota made solar cells out of the windows, the car could produce some extra power, and look exactly the same are their current cars.

[upchuck]

Solar cells are not cheap. Wonder how much this will increase the insurance premium?

Wonder if the solar cells will be a magnet for thieves?

[Scram1]

It was okay until the cat landed—RIP.

[Fresh Wind]

Building ugly cars has become a corporate priority for Toyota, so this fits right in.

So why not add folding solar panels like they have on satellites to increase the surface area? And don’t forget the dashboard and seats. They get plenty hot, so that energy can be used too.

I see the back window is covered. Why not eliminate all the windows to get a few miles more range? In a few years, all cars will be self drivers, so windows won’t matter and even today many drivers drive as if they are blind anyway.