According to a recent Huffington Post article, Toyota is “secretly” developing a solar powered green car. Arguably, most folks with any interest in auto technologies have already heard about the Toyota Prius with solar panels that generate enough energy to run the air conditioner, yet this all-solar model, according to The Nikkei, a Japanese newspaper, will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle and can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes: “[Toyota] later hopes to develop a model totally powered by solar cells on the vehicle, the newspaper said without citing sources.” One major issue, critics have cited, is that this “secret” solar-mobile can be neither confirmed nor denied. While the Toyota website openly discusses the development of a solar paneled roof for the Prius, this covert all-solar powered Prius is nowhere to be found. Additionally, The Nikkei article that supposedly broke the news does not seem to exist. Is this all-solar powered Prius simply an urban car-myth? Possibly. Would an all-solar powered Prius be an amazing feat of automotive technology? Absolutely.
Although Toyota executives have stressed that despite tough economic times for Toyota (with the company experiencing its first operating loss in 70 years) it will remain a leader in green technology and will not cut back on environmental research; therefore, until this new “secret” automobile can be confirmed by Toyota, it remains simply a car-myth, the yeti of automotive technology.
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This would be great except the roof of a car is not large enough to house the required PV area to run a vehicle the size and weight of the Prius. Unless Toyota has some magical 80% efficiency panels…