Filed under: Products and services, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Japan

Toyota Motor Co.’s (NYSE: TM) Prius hybrid is by far the world’s most successful hybrid automobiles, with sales numbering over one million units. In addition to the great gas mileage these gas/electric automobiles provide, could these vehicles become even more efficient? According to Toyota, that’s already in the works.

The Japanese automaker was featured in Japan’s Nikkei newspaper yesterday as saying it will start installing rooftop solar panels on its next-generation Prius cars. Starting with the high-end model, these solar panels will be used to power the air conditioning systems of the car. According to the Nikkei report, these solar panel arrangements might start showing up as next spring.

If Toyota can pull this off, it will mark yet another milestone in automotive history: including solar panel technology in a mass-produced vehicle. It could also set off a trend to power automotive subsystems directly from solar power instead of internally generated power from the gas engine/alternator system or the onboard electric motor. Solar power is abundant and free — why not use it as much as possible?

Now, where are the other automakers with this? General Motors (NYSE: GM)? Ford Motor (NYSE: F)? A show of hands, please.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Products and Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.