Driving on Sunshine

Think owning a Prius establishes your eco-credentials? You may need to trade up to a brighter shade of green.

Toyota Motor is planning to offer solar panels on some high-end versions of the next Prius hybrid, the Japanese business daily Nikkei reports. It would be the first major automaker to tap the sun for some power needs.

The solar panels -- on its roof, no convertibles, please -- will provide 2 to 5 kilowatts of electricity. That's not much, but will be enough to enough to power air conditioning in the vehicle.

Toyota has already made a commitment to solar power, installing a 2.28 megawatt solar electric power system on the roof of its parts center in Ontario, California.

Since its introduction in 1997, Toyota has sold more than a million Prius gasoline-and-electric hybrids. Demand for the vehicle has vastly outstripped supply, and Toyota is aiming to sell more than a million a year after 2010.

Toyota needs to move much quicker before it suffers an image backlash from consumers who want the hybrids but can't get them, writes Douglas McIntyre on the 24/7 Wall St. blog.

"It is a great irony that U.S. car companies are being hurt by having too many gas guzzlers while Toyota is being damaged by under-production of a model which gets tremendous mileage," he says.

by Jeffrey Cane