Toyota enters the Solar Car Challenge
I love the New Year – lots of promises and surprises! Today, I heard about Toyota‘s plans for a new solar car. The vehicle manufacturer announced this week that it is developing a futuristic vehicle that will be 100% solar powered. The vehicle will be electric, but instead of getting juice from the grid, power will be converted by solar panels on the car.
So, you may be wondering if the solar car is worth your investment. Yep. I would say so. Even though oil prices have dropped dramatically from their record highs in summer 2008, the fact remains that fossil fuels are a finite resource, and they are controlled by OPEC. Amazingly, I read yesterday that oil prices jumped from about $33/barrel on December 19, to over $46/barrel again on January 2.
There are still no hard details about Toyota’s solar car. We don’t know the price, size, design or more! The secret vehicle won’t even be on the market for several years. In fact, some commentators believe that the news from Toyota isn’t even about a car. It could be that Toyota is working to develop options through which people can power their vehicles with solar energy. Could it be that the Japanese car manufacturer will soon offer solar roof options for some of its existing, popular vehicles like the Prius?
Either way – a solar car, or solar options – Toyota is smart to continue its green technology efforts. With the economy dealing financial blows across the auto industry, this is just the kind of good, clean news to (excuse the pun) “spark” consumers’ interest!
Tags: solar car, solar car challenge, toyota
