2010 Toyota Prius: Solar Powered Ventilation System

[Anonymous1226]

What a gay car. 

[gophergun]

I could see the usefulness of this (as a Floridian, sometimes the steering wheel is too hot to touch when you first get in), but do you have to press the button every time? I can't think of a situation where I wouldn't want that going if I had it.

[Evanforevertill2012]

wouldnt it make sense to charge the battery to (at the same time ) ?

[eastern2western]

3000 dollars just for a fan. I think people are much better off just to go for a lighter car (white).

[PJCelis]

Solar roofs will become viable when technology improves and they do it on the entire roof (+ maybe the bonnet too) of a station car. You can imagine EVs that can drive indefinately at very low speeds or after very short load cycles which would solve the empty fuel tank problem.

[msrsalim]

do all solar roofs have sunroof as well?

[ToyotaUSA]

@msrsalim Yes. The solar roof acts just like a typical sunroof. Thanks for the post. ^RF

[slatyt]

That is just stupid. I've never seen the solar model on the road here in the NYC metro area. Because no one is stupid enough to pay $3000 to ventilate a parked car. You'd think they would use that solar panel to charge the storage cells so that I can get better mileage. If I can get a few miles on a day's charge from the solar panels I'd gladly pay the stinking $3000.

[tingokuman]

bull my 1992 mazda 929 had this feature and it has a smaller carbon footprint

[msawyer416]

To get this technology for building ventalation go to Home Depote, Lowes Ect.

[thelegendbullet937]

Now they just need to wire the solar panels to trickle charge the vehicle's battery so that it never goes dead :]

Then they'd be set.

[QuattroStig]

Good thing Audi came out with this in 1998 available on the A8's.

[TheJoePepper]

@QuattroStig Yep. Toyota is not an innovator, but they are at least good at marketing.

[jnnycliff]

why not make the entire car with Solar and charge the battery while parking under hot sun? that's might enspire more people shopping and parking under hot sun

[ihearthescreaming]

Toyota = Fail!

[WarsOfHell]

@ihearthescreaming how?

[richardwhat]

I'll give Prius points for trying, but really a Honda Civic gets much better mileage and costs the environment half as much to construct.

Still... it does pick up where the EV1 left off. Let's see an all electric Prius next year.

[xekul]

if the prius would run on electric only it would be better if the whole roof was a solar panel and when you park it charges the battery so when you get in your car you can run on electric only for that much longer before your gas engine kicks in.

[WizzRacing]

@xekul It is coming, we are working on thin film solar panels. with high watt output using multi spectrum to get more power out of the same amount of space. the only draw back is surface area. the less you have to less power you can get. if we can get 200VA+ ie "2400 watts" it can be done. and it would not require you to charge your car from a grid tied system from the utilty company.

[kakureru]

the smart key should rest on that circuit as well

[wickedlypamx]

When purchasing a Prius with the solar panels does it come with the sunroof as well?

[ffuuuucccckk]

Prius is earth's birthday gift :D

[nuclearthreat545]

wait what, why dont these charge the batteries for the car???

[jalit]

Funny how they don't let you use the panels to charge the batteries. Only hightens conspiracy theories with oil companies.

[excite236]

@jalit it will take months for such a small solar panel to charge the monstor battery pack...not very useful...

[fetymann]

why would they put tinted glass over the solar panels? Seems like it's hampering their efficiency.

[jimmycoolcap]

tried it. Down here in florida the ventalations sytem doesn't displace nearly enough air to cool down the passanger compartment don't waste your money. Cool Cap tm Heat Blocking Car Covers work great!

[edstar83]

You want to ventilate the car open the freaking windows i'd hack that bitch to charge the batteries!

[Sonyoooo3]

that is nice making the car inside cold this can save a dog or a child life but many normal car dont have water inside.

[malbert34]

But again this system is only useful on really hot days, otherwise I tend to always have the heater on, instead of the air conditioning. So really, this system should have been used to boost the hybrid battery.

[gremlinextreme101]

@malbert34 I live in South Florida and have to park on the top of a parking complex every day, March till October this would be incredibly useful

[rommelfcc]

Why are car builders so hard to do things right

why did it take sooo long to get the plugin hybrid?

why are the new e-mini's only being leased and not bought?????

why the hell is mercedes benz trying to launch hydrogen fuel cells when it cost more to convert the dangerous gas to put in your car?

Any one remember the hindenburg disaster?

and yeah looks like they could have fitted another panel under the moon move

car companies "backwards into the future"

[rommelfcc]

WTF??

The solar roof was originally intended to assist in charging the vehicle's battery, but the system was configured to only power ventilation when it was found that the battery-charging configuration created electromagnetic interference that affected the radio.

Multi million dollar company dose not know how to fix this??? ya just want to slap them.

[kkjgg112391]

solar panels until today haven't improve it's efficency. solar cells currently have only 22-34% efficiency rating and have very limited life span.

Even if toyota could make use of them, the solar cells produce very little power to affect the driving system. thus, it can only power the fan. inefficient for it's size and weight.

[Tikmondo]

I like the innovations coming out of Toyota. but in this case i think a much simpler, cheaper and more effective solution would be a a standard windshield sun reflector. If Toyota could make a standard sun reflector that is easy to put up would probably cool the car by as much 40 degrees without the extra complexity.

[rommelfcc]

I agree no car manufacturer has brought out any kind of protection for your car even a pop out plastic (Probably 2 layers of plastic with a alloy foil layer between them) pulled and clipped over the roof and windows would be a huge improvement and cheep! And what the hell cut a hole in it for the solar panel, would probably add 10 or 20 years of life to your interior

[PhotoMedia12]

thats cool

[DonHoraldo]

what the hell? we have cheap durable solar panels that could be used to help power the car and they put that tiny panel up there to vent the car. if you ask me the original should have come with a place to plug it in and $200 worth of solar panels on the roof. that's 3400W or for every hour you have the car in the sun you don't need to run to gas engine for 5 minutes. that comes to a savings of $375 a year, meaning the extra expense wouldn't last 12 months.

[screamingservers]

It could work if there were more batteries, and the car was covered in solar panels. As it sits. the Prius motor is 60KW, (pedal to the medal) The batteries are only 1.3kwh, thats 78kwMinutes. So you could never charge more than a couple minutes on the stock batteries. Even if you could. It would take a HIGHLY efficient 5ft by 3ft panel to put out around 200w, which would give you about 7 hours to charge for a couple minutes pedal to the medal (maybe 5 minutes that you mention of real driving).

[DonHoraldo]

and with current gas prices like I said that adds up to $375/year. OK lets say 1/2 the days it rains so $187.5.

[MegaMaster456]

Maybe the Next Prius will charge the batteries using Solar Power.

[tgamirov]

And use Peltier elements to actually cool the air?

[HorrorPixieMassacre]

yay!

[jnoe127]

I just traded in my 07 Mercedes E class for the 2010 Prius IV. I must say I love my Prius, I can see why people who have owned a Prius brag about it. I don't have any complaints about the car, other than they run out fast, so you're limited on the color and base option. I am happy with my decision.

[PineappleOranges]

What about interior noise level in comparison to your old Merc(both highway and city)?

[jnoe127]

Both are quiet, so it's about the same... except the engine on the Prius is really quiet. I mean you can still hear it, but it's definitely more quiet than some other engines. Which can be a negative for some guys, considering that some like to hear that engine rev. I also read an article that Japan is considering making the engine louder because some pedestrians are having a hard time hearing it. I mean you definitely can hear it, but it's just different... best advice is to test drive one.

[4tracked]

I want two

[rayn1988]

Hmm does the upcoming Volt have this feature lol.

[carbow]

I want one.

[vidcritic27]

Wow, just one more way to make the Prius even better. Keep the innovations coming Toyota!

[marvindocko]

This was audi a8 technolgy, many years ago they did it. Thats true maybe they can charge at least some amount of the battery by these panels. why not!

[excite236]

@marvindocko it was orignally designed to charge batteries but there was interference with radio

[jalit]

Funny how they don't make the solar panels recharge the batteries. Only hightens my suspicions of oil companies.

[chick5581]

if this video was entered into an awards show i wonder how well it would do? what do you think., i think it might get nominated for something,

[bluediamond2077]

That's nice for places like around here but if I were to say drive into phx in the bad parts of town i dont know if id like the idea of that being open.. can some one break in threw the roof ?

[ToyotaUSA]

Just close the roof when you park in a questionable area. The roof is made of glass just like the windows. The roof will never open automatically.

[whole27]

@ToyotaUSA u can just open the windows a little, that will ventilate just fine! No need to pay a lot extra for a BS solar panel that doesn't do much of anything but a gimmic! Plus its glass...i don't want a glass roof in the dead of winter! ALso, why put the speedometer in the middle of the car..now the driver is distracted by having to constantly look to the right! And why have so many modes of driving! Just a waste, u don't buy a hybrid to have a power mode which wastes fuel. Just make 1 mode

[mrjost55]

so it just turns the fans on, but doesn't use the A/C? So basically it will keep moving the hot air around without cooling it down.

[bluediamond2077]

if say your car heats up to 140F on a summers day say here in AZ when it's 110F out side this fan will keep the inside 30F less then it would would out the fan by sucking in outside air and moving the super hot air out. That will inturn make the cool down time faster. They sell cheapo solar fans at wall-mart and trust me they do help when it's hot as hell out side. the idea is the same.

[darrellvanhorn]

It's a step in the right direction. Ronco had a pair of solar powered units for about $20 one drew air in, the other blew out and cross-vented your car. It worked pretty good.

Now, why don't they use this to trickle charge and help keep the batteries topped up? Heck, why isn't the entire roof a solar unit to power the car under low loads?

[wyldeslash2003]

seriously, if thats all the solar panel on this thing does, that retarted.

i crack open the windows. there...just saved you $5000

[netwerk23]

Umm, until it rains? And even if you have installed rain shields, you've now compromised security. The ventilation system doesn't cost $5000 either.

[thundergamer]

Mazda had this on the 989 and Toyota only put this on here because of the Aptera.

[thecarfanatic]

+ Audi had this in the A6 and A8

[wndrshwzn]

the solar roof package needs to be added to the prius v

[TranceAddikt07]

the benz e class had all of this way before toyota even dreamed of it..

[sdryder369]

maybe, but benz doesn't come close to toyota or lexus in reliability or value, and they haven't even produced a hybrid alternative to their regular vehicles, although their turbo diesels are okay I guess. Actually, this was all copied from a little 20 dollar tv promo unit that slipped in the window frame to cool the car while owners came back to it after shopping, dining, entertainment, etc. Its a very old concept, glad toyota, mercedes and audi were all able to make it their own

[nparker13]

Too bad you cant get the Advanced Technology Package (intelligent cruise control, auto park) with this feature. I'm very disappointed!

[antVally]

copied from Audi Solar sunroof

[MXsporttourer]

Yeah but Audi had the panels built into the glass of the moonroof. Ditto BMW. There must have been advancements in solar panel technology in the last 10 years since Audi/BMW offered it. Plus it includes Remote A/C which neither vehicle had.

[Sappharad]

Where is the fan located? Does the roof need to be open for the fan to operate? What if it's running and it starts raining, is this something you need to pay attention to the weather for before using?

[EDDIEO101]

The roof remains closed, the car is locked & weather is not a factor. This is an ingenious innovation that helps keep the car interior from overheating on a hot sunny day.

[superjohn18]

sweet! i wish my '07 prius had this.