On one hand you helping your valet and environment driving this thing, on another you are sitting on heath bomb nobody researched yet: with all that voltage generated and passed back and forth there is measurable electromagnetic field. This can not be very healthy.

why hasn’t anyone developed a solar panel hood to go over the car’s engine? if you park out in the hot sun (because of global warming) you could easily charge the car instead of plugging it in and using our natural resources

Audis have solar powered sunroofs that keep the interior cool

Solar panels are heavy, expensive, and not very efficient. Furthermore they are sensitive to the noise, vibration, and harshness found in automobiles. It will probably take at least two more technology generations before solar panels are feasable for cars.

Of course, the price will increase as well. How are we poor people like me suppose to afford hybrids??

Not only that, but solar panels (photovoltaic) are very ugly. I don’t think many people would like being able to choose only the interior color of a car due to the entire thing being covered in solar panels. I’m probably wrong, but I think I remember hearing that solar panels had a 15% to 25% efficiency, which wouldn’t charge up a Prius enough to be worth it. Also, photovoltaic panels would greatly increase the price.

Don’t worry rms492, Toyota is just taking the same path as many conventional vehicles do. Just to use one of their own as an example, the Corolla is a much larger car now than it was 10-20 years ago. I’ll bet a pack of energizers it won’t be long before they introduce a Yaris size hybrid that will ease the affordability issue as the Prius moves upscale.

Oh yay… another car gets more bloated and oversized for the next generation.

Why not just make a Camry Hybrid for those that want a larger car with good fuel economy?

i want a get a XTRA large solar panel racer wing on mines! just so it can generate heat for nuthin’ man, i cant wait! pretty soon theyll be callin themselves ‘eco-tuners’….**** i was just kidding but damn actually not too far fetched…

Umm.. RaineMan.. there IS a Camry Hybrid already! Perhaps you missed it while you were checking if you were wearing your underpants. JohnnyCanuck is correct.. Prius is upsizing to differentiate it from Corolla, leaving room for a future hybrid model sized between Yaris and Corolla that will be advertised as the highest-MPG car in the world!

Then again, Toyota has said that their future hybrids will be individual models, and not based on existing non-hybrid models (i.e. Highlander, Camry).. so upsizing the Prius seems to imply it will replace the Camry hybrid entirely.

Yawn. Someone tell them to can the dustbuster silhouette and they might gain another few million sales.

Great, a bigger and uglier Toyota.

Oh no, the bigger is better mentality strikes again!

Hybrids Consume More Energy in Lifetime Than Chevrolet’s Tahoe SUV.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1612769/posts

As long as it doesn’t come out of my pocket, I don’t care if the hybrid cars ultimately have a higher energy cost. As Art said, “”If a consumer is concerned about fuel economy because of family budgets or depleting oil supplies, it is perfectly logical to consider buying high- fuel-economy vehicles.” Family budget is my primary concern, and I think it is a concern among a lot of consumers in this day and age. However, keep in mind that as the years go buy, that Energy Cost figure will change, and as we start to get with it and make these things here in the US so that we don’t have to import them, that number will change as well.

beatusmongus- 28% efficiency. The “next generation” of solar panels are promising more like 30%.

What would be useful to me is if the battery died, and it gave the battery just enough charge to give it a jump. Even if I was stuck waiting an hour, it would be better than paying for towing and other charges.

LACALover- I’d like to see an article or something that says something about that. Not saying your lying, I’m just more curious about how it works.

Oh yeah, and I don’t think we’ll be drilling oil in the US until they suck the Mid-East dry. We have it, “green” people just refuse to allow it to happen. Lots of that cost at the pump is taxes unfairly imposed on domestic refineries.

Bank on the Prius adding AT LEAST 25% more EPA, making it 60MPG, plus almost 50% more power, with more room to boot!
Another engineering triumph!
The Lexus…..
THAT should be VERY interesting!
DrFill

Once again, I don’t see why automakers insist on making each new generation larger. It pisses me right off. Another example is the new Honda Fit. They’re enlarging it and throwing in a few more horsepower. WHY? They were selling the **** out of the old one as it was. Every dealer I talked to said how they couldn’t keep them on the lot. If your supply can’t match your demand, why change it? Keep selling it until it falls off, then think about changing it.

I reckon we should see the new Prius before we condemn or praise it. On Fit those few inches here and there are not noticeable, but ugly side view is prominent. More horsies & better mileage is pleasing for any car.

jayjc08 just for you http://www.audi.co.uk/audi/uk/en2/tools/glossary/operation_comfort/solar_sunroof.html

Bigger, heavier, more powerful, and more fuel efficient? The first three go against fuel economy, so I’ll believe it when I see it.

Well, the article stated “not significantly heavier”, so I guess it is possible. Actually a lot of cars “grow” that way. If you look at Camry, Accord, Civic, Corolla, Altima, Sentra they all grew with time and got more powerful engines, but their mileage figures are kept the same as previous model. So Camry today has the same mileage as 20 years ago yet it is much larger car with more powerful engine.

Yeah 20 years is a long time for refinement. Between two generations, you are looking at 4-5 years. I am not sure if the engine improves that much to be more fuel efficient while it grows bigger and heavier, unless you count lowering torque spec as an improvement.

Unless also congress is onto something here that automakers have not pushed the engine technology far enough on their own to get the most gas mileage. Thus, they enacted CAFE.

Jayjc08, I stand corrected. Still, though, I don’t think that’s enough efficiency to charge the vehicle for most commuters, although it would help. As far as standing for an hour waiting, in the desert where I live, doing so can kill you (or get you robbed). But a bit of a recharge in an uncovered parking space for 8 hours may add range to the commute, which in turn would save gas. The added weight of the cells may offset that recharge, though. There would be a lot to consider, that’s for sure. I think we’re quite a ways off as of yet. However, the future has yet to be discovered.