Lynne Kiesling
Those Prius engineers at Toyota keep working and working ... a third-generation version of the hybrid vehicle is due on the market next year, and they are already working on rooftop solar panels to generate the power to run the car's air conditioning.
See also the the picture available at Engadget.
I'd like to see more such innovations, where we use solar panels to capture solar energy in places where the sun beats down even in northern climes.
Is there some reason why the Solar panels are tied to the air conditioning vs just used to provide some incremental charge to the batteries?
Will it take more energy and fuel to make the solar panels than the solar panels will save in the lifetime of the car (since their intention is only for the ac)?
Seems like the energy required to drag around the panels might offset any efficiency gains found in removing the electrical generation load from the engine.