đź“° Auto News Finally a car manufactuer gets their head out of their ass

Lord Tin Foilhat

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Grant its still a fucking prius, they finally are doing something smart with electric cars. only took them fucking forever


now if only they design it the RIGHT WAY and have it charging while sitting in a parking lot

Toyota to sell solar panel-equipped Prius next year

The Nikkei, Japan’s biggest business newspaper, reports today [JP] Toyota will use solar panels in its next-generation Prius hybrid cars to be sold starting 2009. The company’s Japanese website doesn’t offer any official information so the news is yet to be confirmed.

The redesigned Prius will come equipped with solar panels on the roof, partly powering the air-conditioning system, which needs up to 5kw. According to the Nikkei, Toyota will procure the PV panels from Kyocera.

Toyota is the world’s first major automaker to install solar batteries on vehicles. It is not yet clear whether the solar Prius will be sold outside Japan as well.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/07/toyota-to-sell-solar-panel-equipped-prius-next-year/
 

Poopshinanigans

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They'll probably have it like a battery tender, keeping it at the right charge all the time. Hopefully it will help keep the batteries charged while its moving to get better gas mileage. But i bet the panel can't provide that much juice. But every little bit helps i guess, looking for the frog hairs.
 

Stink Star

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if it powered the ac while the sun was beating on the car to keep the cabin cool while it was in the sun i would be all about it!!! i hate a hot car interior.

now to be realistic im gonna tell the truth. the prius is nothing but a propaganda tool to get people to buy toyotas! the mileage isnt very good at all considering a non-hybrid honda civic gets better real world mileage numbers than it. i have not met one person getting 42 mpg in their prius, and i bet the ones that do could get that type of mileage out of a normal gasoline car if they drove it in a similar matter.

now the real kicker of the prius is that the people that buy it to "save the planet" muyst really have their heads up their asses because they quickly forget there is a 300 Lb toxic waste dump of a battery in their trunk with a life expectancy of a maximum of 10 years... after those 10 years where does that battery go? likely a EPA recycling center, but even then hazardous waste is hazardous waste- i mean nuclear waste gets disposed of properly but everybody seems to worry about it... why not worry about the batteries as well? i too believe we are not done with the good ol' internal combustion engine. we will figure out how to get more power with less displacement while using less fuel. ive even heard of a gasoline engine with direct injection that purposely uses detonation (kinda like a diesel) instead of spark plugs to run. and since it uses a compression ratio of 20:1 it makes some serious power, while sipping on fuel using run-lean, direct injection technology. that is going to be the future. i also wouldnt count hydrogen out... but the infastructure simply isnt there right now
 

Poopshinanigans

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If everyone wanted to save the world right now then they would just get the clean diesels. But then that makes diesel prices go up, then they have to switch over to produce more diesel making gas go even higher. And it will take a lone time for everyone in America to switch over.

Every solution has more problems that come with it.... Well i shouldn't say every solution.
 

Bru

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now to be realistic im gonna tell the truth. the prius is nothing but a propaganda tool to get people to buy toyotas! the mileage isnt very good at all considering a non-hybrid honda civic gets better real world mileage numbers than it. i have not met one person getting 42 mpg in their prius, and i bet the ones that do could get that type of mileage out of a normal gasoline car if they drove it in a similar matter.

now the real kicker of the prius is that the people that buy it to "save the planet" muyst really have their heads up their asses because they quickly forget there is a 300 Lb toxic waste dump of a battery in their trunk with a life expectancy of a maximum of 10 years... after those 10 years where does that battery go? likely a EPA recycling center, but even then hazardous waste is hazardous waste- i mean nuclear waste gets disposed of properly but everybody seems to worry about it... why not worry about the batteries as well? i too believe we are not done with the good ol' internal combustion engine. we will figure out how to get more power with less displacement while using less fuel. ive even heard of a gasoline engine with direct injection that purposely uses detonation (kinda like a diesel) instead of spark plugs to run. and since it uses a compression ratio of 20:1 it makes some serious power, while sipping on fuel using run-lean, direct injection technology. that is going to be the future. i also wouldnt count hydrogen out... but the infastructure simply isnt there right now

It's all about the driver. I've driven the Prius and returned 60-plus miles per gallon in suburban and city driving. The same car has also returned as little as 42 mpg when a driver went 2 miles each way from home to work in traffic and never got the car up to operating temperature.

The first generation Prius batteries as well as Honda Insight batteries have been around for 10 years are still kicking and have a low failure rate. In fact, I haven't heard of any failures or even a reader's complaint as far as battery failure on the Prius. Although other OEMs aren't as lucky -- the mild hybrid GM trucks from a few years back had these problems with battery failure, although I would hardly even consider those hybrids.

The government has performed high-mileage tests on hybrids that rack up to 100,000 miles in two years to test accelerated reliability. In these tests, the Honda CVT failed on three of the cars at 100,000 miles.

In my opinion, no hybrid is perfect and I would like to see more efficiency irked out of regular combustion engines rather than rely on expensive technology like hybrids, although the mileage advantage is proven, and if driven smartly you can get really good mileage out of the gasoline/electric hybrids.
 

Bru

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plus with the prius you have to relearn to drive. for the hybrids your suppose to gun it and then let the electric motor take over..

or something like that, you have to change your driving habits completly to get the 60mpg, drive it like a gas engine and ull get 40

If you drive lightly, the electric motor will get you up to around 20-30 mph, then the gasoline engine fires up. If you drive too far on electric-only power, the gas engine kicks in to charge the battery.

Basically, you do have to change your driving habits but no by much. Getting good mileage in a regular car requires the same attentiveness to your driving habits.
 

Poopshinanigans

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I think once Lithium ion batteries come out the battery problems will be somewhat solved. Smaller batteries mean less intrusive for the trunk, less weight, i believe they'll charge faster, and the life is longer.

Don't quote me though, its just what i've heard from a show where they highlighted a drag bike that ran on lith/ion bats.
 

Poopshinanigans

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I'm a big fan of function before form. Sometimes you get the Function creates awesome form, but usually not in a japanese vehicle. I'll say the insight is an appliance or tool you would most likely enjoy using. Like a sledgehammer breaking things, cutting word with a chainsaw.
 
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