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Print articleFor ?2000, Solar Electrical Vehicles will fit a solar panel to the roof of your Prius thus gaining, they claim, an extra 20 miles range in electric mode.
Solar Electrical Vehicles was founded by Greg Johanson, who holds the ?solar only land speed record? at 41mph. The company has been developing this technology since 2005 because they wondered if hybrid vehicles ?could take another step and obtain some of their fuel from the sun??
The solar module is fabricated from moulded fibreglass to fit on the roof of a standard Toyota Prius. The solar module includes 146 four-inch-square mono-crystalline cells. An insulating layer of Tedlar is bonded to the fibreglass with a heat-cure adhesive.
The solar cells are connected and then bonded to the Tedlar insulation with EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) encapsulant. Finally, a Tefzel layer is bonded to the top of the cells for ultraviolet and weather protection.
The makers believe that ?the expected range per day that the PV Prius would have on solar power alone would be between 5 and 8 miles. Based upon a nominal daily trip length of 28 miles the gasoline consumption of the PV Prius would be reduced by 17% to 29%.?
In other related Prius news, the American Environmental Protection Agency has just changed the way it measures mpg figures, and has consequently downgraded the Toyota Prius from 60mpg to 48mpg for city journeys. There is speculation that Toyota (and other hybrid manufacturers) had been programming their cars to pass the EPA exam.
