I saw something in the 'Ask Nissan' section of this forum, and I liked the idea. I did a bit of looking around, and this is what I came up with.
The new version of the Prius will have a solar roof as an option, but all it does is keep the cabin ventilated when parked int he sun so that the air conditioner doesn't have to work as hard when you get in the car and start driving.
There is a company in California that makes a solar roof conversion kit for the current version of the Prius, sells it for $3500 US, and has a orders backlogged months. They claim it can help Prius drivers get an extra 15 miles per day. I wondered if you have to be driving all day for that to have an affect, and driving all day would mean multiple tanks of fuel, which would mean the panels increased your milage by maybe 5%. However, it sounds like these kits have batteries because they say it converts the Prius to a plug-in car.
Adopting that philosophy, the solar panels would maybe charge the batteries 5% or 10% per day. That would be a substantial amount for people in California and Florida and Arizona....etc.
Sounds like something Nissan probably already has in the works... why wouldn't they?
The funniest part of it all is that people buy new vehicles and keep them parked inside so the dashboard and paint don't fade in the hot sun. Now, they're building cars you're suppsoed to park in the sun. Sounds like a win-win for automakers and paint shops :lol:
The new version of the Prius will have a solar roof as an option, but all it does is keep the cabin ventilated when parked int he sun so that the air conditioner doesn't have to work as hard when you get in the car and start driving.
There is a company in California that makes a solar roof conversion kit for the current version of the Prius, sells it for $3500 US, and has a orders backlogged months. They claim it can help Prius drivers get an extra 15 miles per day. I wondered if you have to be driving all day for that to have an affect, and driving all day would mean multiple tanks of fuel, which would mean the panels increased your milage by maybe 5%. However, it sounds like these kits have batteries because they say it converts the Prius to a plug-in car.
Adopting that philosophy, the solar panels would maybe charge the batteries 5% or 10% per day. That would be a substantial amount for people in California and Florida and Arizona....etc.
Sounds like something Nissan probably already has in the works... why wouldn't they?
The funniest part of it all is that people buy new vehicles and keep them parked inside so the dashboard and paint don't fade in the hot sun. Now, they're building cars you're suppsoed to park in the sun. Sounds like a win-win for automakers and paint shops :lol: