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posted by Fnord666 on Friday September 13 2019, @06:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the diamonds-are-forever dept.

Toyota is Trying to Figure Out How to Make a Car Run Forever:

Put together the best solar panels money can buy, super-efficient batteries and decades of car-making know-how and, theoretically, a vehicle might run forever.

That's the audacious motivation behind a project by Toyota Motor Corp., Sharp Corp. and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan, or NEDO, to test a Prius that could revolutionize transportation.

"The solar car's advantage is that — while it can't drive for a long range — it's really independent of charging facilities," said Koji Makino, a project manager at Toyota.

[...] But the current forecast is only partly sunny because there's still some work left to reach that level of efficiency.

"This is not a technology we are going to see widely used in the next decades," said Takeshi Miyao, an auto analyst at consultancy Carnorama. "It's going to take a long time."

[...] Toyota has been testing a new solar-powered Prius since July, though it acknowledges that cars running nonstop without connecting to a hose or plug are still far away. Even so, the Toyota City-based company said the research will pay off in other ways.

Indeed, there have been some breakthroughs, mainly due to advancements by Sharp. The prototype's solar panel converts sunlight at an efficiency level of more than 34%, compared with about 20% for current panels on the market.

[...] If the car is driven four days a week for a maximum of 50 kilometers a day, there's no need to plug into an outlet, NEDO's Yamazaki said.

Or only drive it on weekends.


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ron on Sunday September 15 2019, @03:08AM

    by Ron (5774) on Sunday September 15 2019, @03:08AM (#894230)

    Good analysis, But...

    Here in South Texas we easily get 8 hours of usable solar-panel quality sunlight per day, on average. The optimal exposure angle makes a minor difference, but what makes a much bigger difference is the fact that a lot of our cars sit for days at a time before they get used. Not everyone drives every day. I work at home, my kids actually walk to school (less than one mile) and we buy groceries in bulk. I've gone weeks at a time without firing up the old automobile. The car can be recharging all those days, then I can use it for my weekend grocery run once a month or the odd days we eat out or go to a movie. This kind of car would be glorious for my lifestyle, especially if it came with an optional generator on a trailer I could use for really long trips. Make that ginny a propane rig and let it charge on the fly while driving and I'm all over that, times two.

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