Has anyone been able to create a way to use the power from the solar panels on the prius to charge the traction battery and/or any other benefit of having the panels?
no, but if you buy a pip, you can plug right in. free driving! in all reality though, solar panel benefits stand on their own. you make a certain amount of electricity, and no matter how you use it, you get the same benefits.
As they stand, the car stays cool during the Summer months. Originally they were intended to charge the traction battery, but for whatever reason Toyota took a different direction.
Long ago we heard rumors of technical problems (EMI / EMC?) that could not be resolved in time for the MY2010 release. I recall no updated rumors since. Perhaps they decided that the battery charging benefit was too small to be worth the cost.
I would be curious to see a study among battery-failed Prii, of solar ones versus non-solar. We know batteries don't like heat. So if solar keeps the interior cooler, and thus less hot battery, won't batteries in solar Prii last longer?
you're right. i'm in florida, and the choice between hot sun and bird droppings is difficult. i spent an hour cleaning the car one day. i wouldn't want to park there tomorrow, after the birds suck up all the st patty's day scraps.
Here's a story. Last year I parked my wife's SUV at Bradley Intl Airport for two days and was in front of a light standard and when I came back, OMG, the blue hood looked like a pile of shaving cream. yuck! When I got home, took me an hour to clean it up.
I doubt the data would be substantial. Battery packs can handle the heat...period. All the solar panels do is run a fan to circulate inside air with outside air...negating the air temp in the car, but overall, the heat transferred by sitting in the sun is still there...constantly warming the air in the car. You certainly are not cooling the car enough to cool the battery pack by much. Remember, there's a fan to pump cabin air into the battery compartment. It only runs when the car is ON. Maybe if you lived in the Mojave Desert?
The question has been asked several times before. The panel only generates about 22 watts in full sun. Someone once did the conversion and concluded a full days charge would move you a couple of hundred feet in EV mode. I really loved the solar fan feature on my G3 but I love plugging in and driving pure EV more.
