Japan- The revelation of Toyota that it will sell a version of its Prius in 2009 with solar equipped has taken the market by surprise.
The announcement of the redesigned Prius was a surprise but in the vein of much of the eco friendly development throughout the car industry.
The new Prius will have panels on its roof that are solar panels, that will help power the air conditioning and other electrical needs.
The new solar panels will be supplied from Kyocera, and will be used to supplement the electrical system in a user-friendly method that will be more green friendly.
The push to make cars and various vehicle sub systems ecologically friendly has led Toyota and a number of other carmakers to seek methods of decreasing the ecological “footprint” for their new vehicles, and the roof mounted Solar panel plan is one of the newest examples of this effort.
Toyota is so far the first major world automaker to announce the installation of solar panels on its vehicles, but other carmakers are taking close notice.
It is likely that other carmakers will follow suit, as competition for ecology friendly vehicles is expected to rise over the next several years.