Photo: Toyota
When the 2017 Toyota Prius Prime made its world debut at the New York Auto Show earlier this year, we felt a teeny-tiny bit disappointed. Why? Because the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Plug-In Hybrid trumps it in terms of pure electric range and, if my intuition is correct, it will have a pricing advantage as well. The thing is, Toyota won't give up without a fight.
Instead of making the plug-in hybrid powertrain more efficient or increasing the capacity of the battery, the Japanese manufacturer has rewritten the rulebook by introducing a solar roof option for the Toyota Prius PHV (a.k.a. the Toyota Prius Prime in the United States). Ladies and gents that love eco-friendly runabouts, please put your hands together for the world’s first production vehicle equipped with a solar roof.
Oh wait, scrap that. If my mind serves me well, the third-generation Toyota Prius also offered a solar roof option. It was rubbish, though, because the sole purpose of its photovoltaic cells was to power the ventilation fan while the car is stationary. This time around, the solar roof is a bit more multilateral.
The reason why it’s more than just the sum of its parts is that the solar panels integrated into the roof also feed the usual suspects that gorge on electricity, including the lights and the 8.8 kWh battery pack.
Sadly, there is no official info at the moment on how the solar roof improves driving range. All I can tell you is that the Japan-spec 2016 Toyota Prius PHV can travel up to 60 kilometers (37.2 miles) on a full charge. Another thing I can tell you is that efficiency goes up by up to 10 % when the solar roof option is ticked from the list.
The 2016 Toyota Prius PHV with the solar roof will go on sale in Japan and Europe later in the year. As for the United States, I am the bearer of bad news. Because the photovoltaic cells are laid on reinforced glass sheeting, the solar roof wouldn’t pass the rollover crash test of the NHTSA. These being said, it isn’t known when or if Toyota will switch to laminated glass sometime in the future. If it won’t, then that’s that.
Oh wait, scrap that. If my mind serves me well, the third-generation Toyota Prius also offered a solar roof option. It was rubbish, though, because the sole purpose of its photovoltaic cells was to power the ventilation fan while the car is stationary. This time around, the solar roof is a bit more multilateral.
The reason why it’s more than just the sum of its parts is that the solar panels integrated into the roof also feed the usual suspects that gorge on electricity, including the lights and the 8.8 kWh battery pack.
Sadly, there is no official info at the moment on how the solar roof improves driving range. All I can tell you is that the Japan-spec 2016 Toyota Prius PHV can travel up to 60 kilometers (37.2 miles) on a full charge. Another thing I can tell you is that efficiency goes up by up to 10 % when the solar roof option is ticked from the list.
The 2016 Toyota Prius PHV with the solar roof will go on sale in Japan and Europe later in the year. As for the United States, I am the bearer of bad news. Because the photovoltaic cells are laid on reinforced glass sheeting, the solar roof wouldn’t pass the rollover crash test of the NHTSA. These being said, it isn’t known when or if Toyota will switch to laminated glass sometime in the future. If it won’t, then that’s that.
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