Toyota Hybrids Going Solar
In an economy of record high gas prices, green is the color that is preferred by most consumers. Cars “going green” is a
globally widespread issue that has automakers doing everything they possibly can to answer the economic call. The Toyota prius hybrid is one of the more popular economic vehicles on the market today and plans to continue their green influence by adding solar panels to their next generation prius hybrids. According to a recent article, the gesture by Toyota is more of a symbolic action to respond to the growing demand for more economic vehicles.
The panels, which are supplied by Kyocera Corp, will mainly be used to power part of the air-conditioning in the high-end versions of the hybrid car. As of right now, this is the only function of the car that will be affected by the solar panels, as it can be difficult to do anything more just using solar power. The problem that many critics are seeing is that solar power is not a viable solution for providing power to cars. The panels can be very expensive and storing the solar power is difficult to do.
“Even if you laid solar panels out on the entire roof of a house, you only generate enough energy to run two hair dryers. It’s an interesting idea, but it would be very difficult to power a whole car, even with technological advances,”
Said Kentaro Endo, a director at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry who specializes in renewable energy. With the demand for more green friendly cars continuing to rise at an alarmingly fast rate, automakers are scurrying to keep up and Toyota has at least taken a step. The demand for the prius has been overwhelming in the past few years as the high gas prices have turned drivers off from larger vehicles such as the SUV and pick-up trucks and Toyota has been struggling to keep up. Maybe with the release of the newly remodeled solar powered prius, which is set to happen sometime next year, Toyota will continue its domination over gasoline-electric hybrid cars.
The stability of gas prices in the economy at the current moment remains to be seen, and hopefully little advancements such as solar powered panels in hybrid vehicles will help shift a change towards a more economically friendly generation of vehicles.
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