SOLAR Powered TOYOTA Prius News Feature

[MrMicropimpin]

use that stored solar energy for tha nite

[MrMicropimpin]

U kant use gas cuz its too high u cant use water cuz that wud run up ur water bill n it cost money it mite cause a shortage on water, u kant use electricty cuz that wud run up ur electric bill and it cost money but u can use solar power cuz ur taking it from a good source the sun which has a lot of solar energy n for those who r asking how wud it work during nite time wit the sun out well u cud just charged it during the day cuz thats wats happening during the day its storing energy so u cud

[ddnguyen278]

This is a smart idea, I'm sure car makers will add this as an option in the future for hybrid cars. It boost mileage and if they can buy the panels in bulk it shouldn't cost as much as an after market.

[BatusaiJack]

now this is the way for the future. Next step -- get it to run on solar 100% and function just like a normal car would.

[stitch16261]

Can you get 70 mpg going between 55-60 mph?

[OneWorldGovernment1]

I would like to get solar on my 2008 Prius. Where do I go? Who do I call? Prius in Denver Colorado.

[mindthoughts1974]

Oh this is a must have :) great work indeed. I just sold my Prius to buy a first generation Honda insight 2000- 2006 and now average about 70 miles per gallon. I'm going to put solar panels on the insight as well. I would love to have you guys do the installation.

[happyblackie]

70 mpg... holy crap!

[dieselplow]

I think this great - as a solar lover - but - why do they just keep on making these parts for a Prius? We have a Civic hybrid - and we do not have any real after market options to expand its possibilities.

[Baban1974]

I just bought a new Prius 2010 with solar roof, but the generated energy is only for the interior ventilation.

[MrEnergyCzar]

great idea....

[edin1996]

that will be so good for the future..because ,today people polluting the atmosphere .. this will be so good.. but that will be too expensive ..maybee

[smokeystriper]

so, you have one of thees in the drive way, you live in a sunny part of the country and have a short commute. you only have to gas up once every 2 or 3 months. the bad news is with the new E10 gas sold in most if not all of the country. the fuel will go bad before you get to use it.the fuel system will have to be torn down and cleaned. just a thought. might want to find a solution to that.

[edstar83]

I had this idea a long time ago about time they make it viable!!

[jackrochesterny]

1) this is not copied from Aptera-this guys has had this on his website for longer than Aptera has been around.

2) There looks like a lot of more surface area on the hood and back deck.  How about doubling the array size?

3)How come Toyota does not use their roof for more than the "solar cooling"? Anything that keeps the batteries topped up seems to make a lot of sense.

I have a 4.5 mile commute, so this thing looks like it could really work. off

[kkjgg112391]

They cannot use it for charging the batteries because it makes too little power.

and solar cells are very heavy for what they produce.

[jiminirvana]

They Copeid it from the aptera

[bendutta2008]

Solar feature seems like a badass idea, but the problem I have with the Prius is... IT LOOKS SO UGLY!!!! Give that car some sex appeal.

[NeoAltPower]

We could have had cars like this back in the 60's. The gas milage of your average car in Japan is 50mpg, some even 100mpg look up C.A.F.E. $4500 for solar batteries, think about what you save on Gas and what you paid for that $4500 solar system, do the math, it actually isn' t all that much.

[rnordquest]

You're right about the cars in Japan. They're cool, get great mpg but...you'll die if you hit anything larger than a motorcycle. There's absolutely nothing too them. For slow city driving I wouldn't mind having one. Out on the highway? Forget it.

[velveetaslingshot]

"b) you must be really bored to reply to a comment 3 months old... fuckin looser"

LMAO....truly the irony of what you just wrote must be lost on you.

[velveetaslingshot]

So lemme get this straight. You are the super-cool guy who goes around calling people hippie liberal douchebags but you actually looked for and watched a video titled SOLAR Powered Toyota Prius???? LMAO!!!! Burned by your own incompetence!!!

[Arley2011]

We wont see this until 2011

[jiminirvana]

your wrong the solar power thing was copied from the aptera which already came out in Janaury but was only sold in C.A

[Jules1414]

Not really relevant to the comment I made but give me the reference I'll go read it, then look at the source of the article and see if it's reliable and then have an opinion about it...That's how I do it...I sold my car and bike around by the way.

[Jules1414]

So because your kids won't have to live with the consequences of todays mistakes it is not an issue for you? You have balls to call other people douchebags after a statement like that...seriously, think about it.

[sf49ersrule]

actually it is proved that its almost too late. and 100 to 200 years??? global warming is happening now and all the rainforest might end up in 2040. now is the time to start, or else the end of the world ight be near!

[sf49ersrule]

ya think about that when your kids are gonna die because of fuckin global warming

[kaduisaui]

Great video!

[leandro5k]

esa idea la tengo desde que tenia 7 años,lo que pasa es que vivo en argentina y aca hay que agradecer si tenes monedas para el colectivo. ahora tengo 26 y recien se les esta ocurriendo a esos hijos de puta que el sol es gratis?

p.d. no encontras algo esplicado en castellano ni por putas

[redsoil5]

Why not use magnetic motor & solar power to power the battery.Would it be more effective?Now we're talking about free energy.The energy company would hate this.

[cxpage]

70 mpg sure sounds nice!

How's the Hummer treatin' ya?

[DANNERatLARGE]

solar power has an incredibly low effecency percentage, about 12% you lose so much energy from panel to batteries, then even more from batteries to the wheels. solar panels have harmful substances in them so when you discard them your polluting the earth pretty bad. I say Hydrogen is the way to go for now. the only problem is mass producing it.(even though its the most abundent element in the universe) nothing but clean water vapor comes from combusted hydrogen.

[SectF1]

but its so expensive to make an hydrogen engine, that no one will ever buy one

[pantyflash]

Like, totally awesome! I want one now, babe! Intro by the late great Hal Fishman makes this newsbite even better! Way to go, babe!

[poutsaraklos]

thats very cool!!!!

[transhuman7]

SUV drivers are looking stupider by the day.

[8492ndSQUADRON]

i was so bord i did an egine swap on the pius by putting a ferrari f40 v12 engine so i can do 0-60 in 2.5 seconds.

[timmytabs]

cool

[redsoil5]

you're not only bored but also a moron. you don't get the idea of saving the environment. of course a prius will not match a ferrari on acceleration. if you can buy a ferrari why bother having a prius? and zippone all those gasoline in saudi arabia to put into your ferrari.

[hellasow]

what enviroment are you trying to save if the tepeture goes up 10-20 degrees what are you afraid of? so if the oceans rise you move inland....you can use the sea ocean water inland for saltwater resistant crop and lower the ocean back down...people will adapt...what is the worse you think will happen? salt water can be change into drink water right now it just not econimcal...so what is the problem?...what are you scared of?

[DANNERatLARGE]

Global Warmings have happened before cars. this is like when they thought an ice age was going to happen in the 70's

[hellasow]

1939 time magazine reported global warming 1975 they said ice age now 2006 back to global warming...1895 new york times ice age...about evrey 30 years it goes back and forth

[SectF1]

the climate heating will in about 50-100 years from now move ower to the next ice age. yes, thats right, an ice age! for every ice age we have seen in the ice from Greenland or Antartic, have there been an hot period before each ice age. but before that(!) will the coral sea not survive. the rain forrest on the entire planet will die, 70% of the earths ecosystem will die (70 out of 100 spieces can not handle the climate heating.) so dont say enything that you dont know a shit about!

[hellasow]

a global ice age in 50-100 years LMAO ...are you saying an ice age follows evrey slight period of global warming...1895 ny times reported fears of global ice age in 1932 ny times reported global warming... 1975 ny times global ices age...2006 global warming by time magazine (i see a patern. do you?)...planets with no species and no forrest have temputure changes what your point?...SO WHAT IS GOING TO CAUSE THE ICE AGE? LOST OF THE TWO TOED SLOTH?

[SectF1]

the golf stream which take some of the heat from the Caribbeans to North Amerika and Europe, will stop because there comes to much freshwater from Greenland and the north pole. and that will cause an ice age in the northern part of the planet. its not a myth, but a fact!

[hellasow]

ok this is your theory not fact just because you state something as fact does it make it so...so what is "theory" of what is going to cause the gulf stream from funnel warm air up north? to much warm air/oceans?...amazing you can predict this... but people can't even predict the amount of huricans correctly an locations...this is not exact science

[Riandidit]

It's a theory that's agreed upon by a large majority of scientists. So... Either most of the scientists are lying, or you're wrong.

I'm thinking it's the latter.

[hellasow]

scientest accept the "politically correct" theory does not make them right or lying they could just be wrong.the "genius" that i was responding to said 7 of 10 species were going to die in 50-100years where he came up with this number was something he probably read and who ever created that stat obviously pulled that number out of his ass since no experiment could ever predict this..scinetist predicted in 1895 ice age 1932 global warming 1975 ice age and 2006 global warming do you see a patern?

[hellasow]

why was the earth cooling in the 1970's so much scientist thought there would be an ice age? we were polluting alot then where was our global warming?...other planets are expirencing global warming too...

[hellasow]

sectf1...7out of 10 spiecies can't handle climate heating...DID YOU DO AN EXPIRAMENT ON ALL THE SPECIES OF THE WORLD AND SEE WHAT TEMPETURE THEY CAN ENDURE?...since many spieces have not even been discoved..sounds like junk science 101 where you pull stats out your butt...

[SectF1]

because many uniqie species cant live whitout the rainforrests and coral seas. its like a human have to live on water. we just cant.

[hellasow]

ok let go to lala land and pretend that 7out of 10 species will die not 6 out of 10 not 8out of ten but 7 out of ten(since you claim this as fact an not a prediction)...what do you think will happen to all the matter that those animals are made of will go....dont you think they will adapt to become other species or do you think all that matter will turn to rock? you might want to stop saying this and that is fact when you make a prediction it will help your credability...

[hellasow]

also what tempeture is too hot for a rain forrest?...are you claiming to much co2 is bad for rain forrest? simple question...

[hellasow]

you say humans have to live on water...ok i assume you mean that can't live on water but they do...some people live on boats...maybe you meant under water..well we could... we could build tiny cities underwater but this would just be too costly...you not exactly coming of as a genius...

[SectF1]

try to think whitout a boat you son of a bitch.

[hellasow]

well with comments like that you surely are an intellectual...wow name calling...you surely can't argue fact... since you have none...so your are reduced to name calling like a 5 year old...is anyone supposed to take you seriously?

[SectF1]

Jeg knepper din søster, og dræber din mor, men du fatter ikke hvad jeg siger her, så du vil aldrig finde ud af det. din lille 3 årige psykopat. Try to say that in Englisch.

[DANNERatLARGE]

the prius' 45 mpg isn't helping that much. you can get better milage out of a diesel.

[SectF1]

well in Europe we measure in Litres, and a Prius accualy drives longer per liter than 9 out of 10 diesels. the only diesels which drives longer per liter, is smaller cars like the Toyota Aygo, VW Polo and so on.

[Cyrusgabe]

soon you can take a shit in it and you'll do 130miles from it..or wait! make it run on puke!

[gambitrocks]

Every car in the future should have electric and solar panels molded in the car body. Like that when you are parked or when you drive you can recharge your batteries.

[Skandranon2148]

I'd love to see this sort of solar conversion kit available for any car. I can't afford a new Prius, but I would sure shell out the 4.5k for a kit for my own Taurus.

[diamondsmajestic1]

A lot of people seem to just think about whats in it for me right now. We know that there is a limit to the fuel reserves in the world and world supply and demand pressures are forcing fuel prices up all of the time . Pioneering Work like this is is to be highly commended as in the future, whether we like it or not the world will need to move to alternative energy of necessity. Good work. Keep it up and keep us posted on youtube

[PUAsimon]

sry honey, gas is going up cuz the fed keeps cutting interest rates and the dollar keeps getting weaker.. girls, plz dont try to sound like u no wut ur talking about...

[energyadvertiser]

Thanks, I will, there are a lot of car maunfacturers bringing out concept cars with integrated solar.

[grybold]

This video is awesome. There are whole websites dedicated to this. Just google for "hypermilers" and you will find the websites. The world record is 250mpg from a solar PHEV prius. Popular Science magazine this month: if you add up all oil deposits known today, at 2008 global daily consumption, we have until about 2025 to 2030 and the oil will be "dry." We need to start preparing today! We need to save that fuel for air planes, military, and critical industries that need it.

[cdltpx]

The market will determine what we will drive. What will happen is there will have to be less cars on the road or they will have to become ultra efficient MPG greater than 100. I would not be surprised to see covered 3 wheeled motorcycles to cover the need for transportation.

[cdltpx]

With our current usage I can see getting an upgrade to plug in electric(PIE) once warranty runs out. How can he get this system for $4,5k wehn it cost some$10k to upgrade to PIE? Has anyone upgraded his or her prius to either system? I'm told PIE can up your mpg to 100mpg to me talk is cheap my car is rated at 62 mpg best I can get is 55 driving very conservatively. I give it 10 years and this country will be like Asia with all the motorbikes bicycles and economy cars. Gone will be all the v8's.

[energyadvertiser]

10 years is a long long time. Think back ten years ago, mobile phones were bricks, a pc was £1000, a laptop was £2000. Now, a laptop 10 times better is £200. Everybody carries a phone, pc, camcorder, video player and their record collection in their pocket with room for keys. An energy and vehicle revolution is just around the corner, the next year may be a bit lean but after that it will be plain sailing.

[salvinorinman]

It may seem that the ticket price of 4,500 dollars is too steep. NOT TRUE. Lets do the maths. At $3.00 a gallon (a price that is only going to go up) a lite truck that gets an average of say 20 mpg will eat that cost in gas in less than 700 miles! (3.00 * 4,500 / 20 = 675) Thats barely more than the distance from San Francisco to San Diego (in stop-and-go)!

[timmytabs]

EXACTLY, and the price of solar is going down, the price of batteries is going down. Ther will sometime soon be a crossover point where solar and/ or electric will be cheaper.

[HYBRD007]

Um, 700 miles at $3.00 per gallon in a vehicle that gets 20MPG, would be $105.00

$4500.00 at $3.00 per gallon would buy you 1500 gallons of gas, and in a vehicle getting 20MPG, you could go 30,000 miles.

[subach]

I'd wait until I could buy some PV from nanosolar, too bad they're sold about for the next 18 months of production.

[5james5]

Its a good idea but why not a smaller and lighter weight car for solar power? I'm sure a Mini Cooper would do better than a huge Toyota Prius

[Shadyhunter04]

This is really nice. I'd much rather have this on an all electric car though, just to get rid of the extra maintenance costs of the gasoline parts. They are already developing safe long life batteries (10k+ charges) that charge in 10 minutes or less. Some progress is being made to extend the charge too. I expect that it will be real practical to buy an electric car in less than 20 years. Since my car is new right now I'd rather drive it till it dies, and buy a fully electric one in 10 years.

[tonyvazquezjrgodsson]

Good deal! Also: Check out "Amazing Solar and Wind Powered Van".

[cleazenby]

when i can afford a vehicle i will definitely do this....

[filmstarcolby]

This is great! Imagine taking the money out of the oil power and putting it into a tangible use for THE PEOPLE instead of the few elite.

[ronpack]

only problem is the more people use electricity instead of gas, the more gas will go up

[olismith]

SWEEEEET! This would still work in rainy Oregon, haha.

[energyadvertiser]

One day everything will have built in solar panels to contribute towards it's energy. It's not a total solution, but it's a contribution to a solution. It's nothing to do with liberalism. It's to do with science and economics. Solar power is everywhere in the UK, a country where it rains a lot and is cloudy. It is even more prevalent in some hot countries. When oil reserves dry up as they have in the UK, solar is a long term solution.

[templarknight13]

all cars should be solar in some aspects..lights horn ignition, stereo. good use of the Sun.

[energyadvertiser]

This car is not about just saving the earth, this kind of technology solves all kinds of problems such as energy independence, rising oil costs, oil shortages, financial savings, as well as reducing emmissions.

[energyadvertiser]

Also, a number of comments to this video have talked about the cost of a solar hybrid vehicle and how it's cheaper to use biofuels or bicycles. Well, try to grasp the concept of making a financial decision that will cost you in the short term but save you LOTS OF MONEY in the LONG TERM.

[energyadvertiser]

This would cost a lot less if it was mass produced, like all new technology the price drops over time.

On cloudy days it won't work so well but it's a hybrid so you still have gas.

Hybrid batteries last longer than you think, ask prius taxi drivers.

The average person could cope using bicycles with trailers but this is the 21st century.

Biofuels drive up food prices as they use land that would otherwise be used for food.

This is not a total solution but its a step in the right direction.

[energyadvertiser]

If you owned this car you are not committed to only using the solar panels and driving 6 miles a day, you can still use gas as it is a hybrid for the rest of your mileage. The solar panel just saves you some money long term. You could also theoretically convert to plug in for more money saving. As for riding a bike thats a good suggestion but not practical for some people and distances. I'm all for the government subsidising bicycle purchases for health and environmental purposes.

[drivin98]

Great video!