Toyota Prius goes solar powered – well, the air-con does anyway

Solar powered stuff is genius. It just is. You can’t hate it, even though it’s all a bit rubbish at the moment. Take the solar powered Toyota Prius for example – awesome thing for a main stream motor vehicle manufacturer to be looking to clean, green sources, just a shame it’s only the air-con system that’ll be running on the suns rays.

Still, it saves you petrol, it saves on CO2 emissions and you even get to wear the statement as a badge with a slightly odd looking solar panel strapped to the roof of your car.

The Prius is already a petrol/hydrogen hybrid and there have been some tests to add electrical cells by SEV in the States to varying effects. This latest step seem small but it’s only a matter of time before the whole car is plated in solar cells that power its motion too.

In the mean time, Toyota should have 450,000 units of this current model in the Japanese market next year. I don’t know if it’s just me, but the future feels a little less far away. Isn’t that nice?

(via Crave)

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