djc Posted June 20, 2016 Report Share Posted June 20, 2016 Cool feature; but doesn't meet US roll-over standards: http://gas2.org/2016/06/20/toyota-prius-prime-gets-solar-roof/ I'd also like a roof that changes color - reflective silver white on hot days, dark dark on cold days. ptjones 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian_L Posted June 21, 2016 Report Share Posted June 21, 2016 Intriguing. But I heard they were kind of useless. Roof solar panels that is, not the Toyota Prius :) Or to put it another way, sitting the car in the sun for 6 hours only regenerates a tiny fraction of the battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowStorm Posted June 21, 2016 Report Share Posted June 21, 2016 I'd also like a roof that changes color - reflective silver white on hot days, dark dark on cold days.That's about what the panoramic roof does - when shade is open the car gets toasty warm, close the shade and it blocks the sun. Now we just need a built-in shade for that huge windshield! djc and C-MaxSea 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptjones Posted June 21, 2016 Report Share Posted June 21, 2016 I use HeatShield windshield shade, works great. :) https://www.heatshieldstore.com/Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Smith Posted June 21, 2016 Report Share Posted June 21, 2016 Does the solar roof charge the battery or just provide enough power to run the fan and allow the cabin to vent... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livesmith Posted June 21, 2016 Report Share Posted June 21, 2016 Does the solar roof charge the battery or just provide enough power to run the fan and allow the cabin to vent...The old 3G Prius had a small solar panel that did what you describe. The new Prius Prime gets a much larger panel that actually charges the big battery. It's certainly not likely to provide all of the power for your commute, but if it's out in the sun anyway, I'll take some solar power! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian_L Posted June 21, 2016 Report Share Posted June 21, 2016 https://www.technologyreview.com/s/410454/does-car-mounted-solar-make-sense/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian_L Posted June 21, 2016 Report Share Posted June 21, 2016 .... but if it's out in the sun anyway, I'll take some solar power! Sure. If the panel is free, which it's not. Just another example of a marketing swindle to make money from consumers who know nothing about the science. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowStorm Posted June 21, 2016 Report Share Posted June 21, 2016 I'm all for solar so just how good might this panel be? The "up to 10%" statement, being totally unqualified, is rather meaningless so lets look at some numbers. The panel appears to be about 1 square meter in size. Horizontal solar irradiation averages about 1800 kW-hrs / m2 / year or about 5 kW-hrs / day. With a 15% efficient solar panel you get about 740 watt-hours per day, enough to go 3 or 4 miles. I've ignored some losses so maybe its 2 to 3 miles average. Under the best conditions it might be 4 to 5 miles. Whatever the exact number, its a small but not insignificant distance you add every day (on average). You can certainly say "its not worth it", but the marketing and public awareness value for solar power in general cause me to give Toyota credit for doing it. People are starting to change their view of electric cars - its time they do the same for solar power! C-MaxSea 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livesmith Posted June 22, 2016 Report Share Posted June 22, 2016 Sure. If the panel is free, which it's not. Just another example of a marketing swindle to make money from consumers who know nothing about the science.Sure, but think about the other options you pay for on cars... I'd say on average you can option a car with about $10K worth of stuff. It's up to you where you want to spend your money. Lots of people like to go out and buy new cars and dump a lot of money in that "new" word. Personally, I'll buy a 3 year old car for maybe half or less of the cost and get one with all of the options installed for close to free(they really don't seem to make much difference in the used world.). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackalopetx Posted June 22, 2016 Report Share Posted June 22, 2016 (edited) Sure, but think about the other options you pay for on cars... I'd say on average you can option a car with about $10K worth of stuff. It's up to you where you want to spend your money. Lots of people like to go out and buy new cars and dump a lot of money in that "new" word. Personally, I'll buy a 3 year old car for maybe half or less of the cost and get one with all of the options installed for close to free(they really don't seem to make much difference in the used world.). Have you shopped for a used car within the last decade? A 3 year old car doesn't cost half as much as a new one. It's more like 2/3 or 3/4 the price. A 3 year old Toyota is like 90% of the price of a new one. That's with 50k-100k miles. I looked at 2013 C-Maxes and they were $15,000. I paid $20k for my brand new one. Edited June 22, 2016 by jackalopetx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian_L Posted June 22, 2016 Report Share Posted June 22, 2016 Let's look at this logically. Let's say you could buy a regular car and there was a $3000 engine modification to save you, say, 2 mpg. Would you buy it? Of course you wouldn't. obob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackalopetx Posted June 22, 2016 Report Share Posted June 22, 2016 (edited) The safety issue should be a dealbreaker. Rollovers cause 1/3 of fatalities and are 3 times as deadly as frontal collisions http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/CrashWorthy/RoofCrResist/FMVSS216Notice.html The DOT standard is pretty lax. It requires the roof to support 3x the vehicle weight http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/2009/U.S.+DOT+Doubles+Roof+Strength+Standard+for+Light+Vehicles,+Announces+First+Ever+Standards+for+Heavier+Vehicles The C-Max roof can support 6.8 times the vehicle weight which is the highest of any vehicle as far as I know. So if the solar Prius can't even meet the DOT requirement, its roof is half as strong or worse than ours. http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/ford/c-max-hybrid/2014 The standard Prius can do 5.67x vehicle weight, so it almost doubles the DOT requirement. They must have taken a lot of metal out to fit those solar panels http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/toyota/prius-4-door-hatchback Edited June 22, 2016 by jackalopetx obob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livesmith Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 Have you shopped for a used car within the last decade? A 3 year old car doesn't cost half as much as a new one. It's more like 2/3 or 3/4 the price. A 3 year old Toyota is like 90% of the price of a new one. That's with 50k-100k miles. I looked at 2013 C-Maxes and they were $15,000. I paid $20k for my brand new one.I'm thinking you looked in the wrong places. I could find quite a few 2013 C-Max Energi's for under $10K. I bought my 2013 C-Max Energi with 303A and Pano roof in January for under $13K. Pretty sure it cost more than $35K new... A Prius might be harder to harder to do that with. IIRC, I bought my loaded 2004 Prius for just under $10K in 2009 so that was closer to 5 years old at the time. It's price when new I believe may have skated in under $30K. Though a quick glance shows plenty of 2013 Prius' out there for under $10K as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kostby Posted June 25, 2016 Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 Save the "Toyota Tax" and do-it-yourself for a couple hundred, or less. Fry's Electronics carries all kinds and sizes of solar panels, including durable ones for RV's and campers, many of them are rated as 'trickle chargers' designed for 12v battery maintenance.http://www.frys.com/search?search_type=regular&sqxts=1&cat=&query_string=solar+panel+charger Find a folding one to fit the windshield/dash area, or maybe one or more to fit inside the moonroof opening. ptjones 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian_L Posted June 27, 2016 Report Share Posted June 27, 2016 Put an RV solar panel on a roof rack?! That's about as nutty as that guy who had one pair of rims on his driver's side and a different pair on his passenger's side :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livesmith Posted June 27, 2016 Report Share Posted June 27, 2016 Save the "Toyota Tax" and do-it-yourself for a couple hundred, or less. Fry's Electronics carries all kinds and sizes of solar panels, including durable ones for RV's and campers, many of them are rated as 'trickle chargers' designed for 12v battery maintenance.http://www.frys.com/search?search_type=regular&sqxts=1&cat=&query_string=solar+panel+charger Find a folding one to fit the windshield/dash area, or maybe one or more to fit inside the moonroof opening.Sure, you could probably find a panel for $20 and shove it in a window to trickle charge the 12V battery. Getting serious voltage and a decent amount of amperage into the high voltage battery is going to be a bit more complicated and expensive...I'm thinking you've got at LEAST a couple hundred dollars in panels, if not a good bit more, and then you better be at a level where you're able to hack/build your own equipment to hook into the HV battery and not have the computers yell at you, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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