Jalopnik 
Enter your username and password.
-
posts about #solarpoweredtoyotaprius more → 
Report: Toyota Possibly Developing Solar-Powered Car
Detroit, 9:50 PM
Fri Nov 27
4 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jalopnik.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Ray Wert | Email | AIM
Road Test Editor:
Wes Siler | Email
Weekend Editor:
Murilee Martin | Email
Associate Editor - Houston:
Matt Hardigree
Associate Editor - Detroit:
Ben Wojdyla
Editor-at-Large:
Mike Spinelli
Contributors:
Mark Arnold
John Krewson | Email
Andy Didorosi
| posts about #solarpoweredtoyotaprius more → |
Report: Toyota Possibly Developing Solar-Powered Car |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
01/02/09
If you leave it parked in one spot for several days and then drive it away, you will experience a significant boost in electric-only range. Even a simple panel mounted to the roof (and in my humble opinion, panels added to the dash and backlight) will boost the range about 8 miles per tankful, which isn't huge but not negligible either. But to build a more-or-less conventional car, driven solely by solar? Not without a quantum leap in solar conversion efficiency, which currently stands at about 30% in laboratory settings, and that's just a raw score for the panel alone. Add in the power hardware and losses mount rapidly.
01/02/09
01/02/09
Also, Ray says "According to Japanese newspaper The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells on the vehicle, and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes."
So, they are mostly going to use their magic wand and get us all to install solar panels on our roofs? That may work in Fantasy-Nancy Pelosi Land, but in the real world, and our shitty economic reality, that stuff just isn't going to fly.
01/02/09
And no, it is not cost efficient or energy efficient. You would need several hundred square feet of solar panels to make one horsepower. Think those cars that universities build for competitions, the ones that struggle to achieve 40mph at noon:
Now, you could charge batteries while parked, but then you find that solar cells aren't very cost effective unless you are far away from grid power.
Of course, if all you're concerned with is greenwashing, then adding solar cells to your Pious is the way to go.
/rant
01/02/09
You are correct, pure-solar powered cars are never going to be a practical idea, due to cost and power concerns
A clarification:
Car on the right: Momentum, 2005 University of Michigan
Car on the left: Borealis III, 2005 University of Minnesota
I have personally driven Borealis III for over 1000 miles, and I helped build it's successor, Centaurus, which I drove in the 2400 mile 2008 North American Solar Challenge.
On a good day, these cars will "break even" at about 55 miles per hour. However, as they are also equipped with battery packs, SPEED is not limited by the power captures, but RANGE is (of course, if you go slower, range improves). The batteries are large enough to go ~300 miles without sunlight. Top speed is ~80mph, limited entirely by the torque curve of the motor. If we went with a less efficient geared transmission (as opposed to direct-drive) top speed would be much higher.
These cars have a solar array that is ~8 square meters of cells, in 2005 we were looking at 21-25% efficient cells on the top end. Borealis III's array could put out 2000+ Watts at peak, which is about 2.7 HP. The battery was capable of pumping out power equivalent to around 12 HP. Not bad for a car that weighed 400 pounds empty (580lb loaded).
01/11/09
01/01/09
01/02/09
01/01/09
Should the technology mature quickly enough, it could find practical application in the form of being an additional means of increasing the range of plug-in hybrids such as the Volt.
As far as a car powered solely by solar panels, I have but one question:
Does it shit rainbows as well?
01/01/09
I'm still waiting on my production ready Ford Refl3x
[www.alternative-energy-news.info]
It's 2009 and I still don't know how to post pics.
-sigh-
01/01/09
01/01/09
01/01/09
I can't seem to convince myself that this is a bad thing.
01/01/09
This shit is getting old, and the word needs to get out that HYDRO FUCKING GEN is the future, and Europe is already leading the way.
Why doesn't the fucking news report THAT.
01/01/09
01/01/09
01/02/09
01/02/09
[www.greencarcongress.com]
01/02/09
So it all depends on your perspective as to who's leading the way. I'm going to say it's the Canadians, and I'm no more or less correct than anyone else.