It's Easy Being Green

Engineers at Toyota are apparently working to build a completely solar powered car.  It will be a few years before the solar powered vehicle will be ready for sale but it’s a move the auto manufacturer hopes will help turn it’s business aound.  Toyota, just like most other auto manufacturers, have been hit hard by a slumping globabl economy and reduced demand for their products.

Sources say the car will be equipped with solar panels on the roof and will also be able to be recharged by conventional solar panels you might have on your house or business.  Toyota also hopes to eventually build and market a car that can be solely powered and recharged by it’s own installed solar panels.  The move has surprised many since Toyota is reporting its first sales loss in 70 years of business.  But the auto giant says it won’t halt it’s research in green technology despite the current bad business environment.

Toyota already has a history with solar power and other green technology.  The company’s plant in Tsutsumi has solar panels spread across it’s roof that would cover 60 tennis courts.  The panels produce enough electricity to supply 500 homes with power.  The company says the panels are reducing 740 tons a year of carbon emissions…the equivalent of 1,500 barrels of oil in reductions.

Toyota will also apparently get some help through one of it’s battery research partners, Panasonic.  Panasonic just recently took over Sanyo Electric Corp., a leader in solar energy.

I hope these researchers are able to get this done sooner rather than later and are able to make the technology affordable to the normal car buyer.  Can you imagine in sunny locales like Arizona and California, these cars would work like a dream…quietly whisking you from one errand to another powered by the cosmic giant above.

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The University of Arizona has unveiled their new, completely solar powered car for an upcoming competition.  Apparently it is completely street-legal.  Check out the link below:

UofA Solar Powered Car

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It looks like, at least temporarily, gas guzzling trucks and SUV’s produced by General Motors will be singing their swan song.  Today, GM has announced they will shutter 4 GM plants that produce trucks and SUV’s as sales sag even more as the price of oil continues to climb.  CEO Rick Wagoner also indicated that GM may stop producing the ultimate gas guzzling vehicle all-together: the Hummer.  That would be music to my ears!  Every time I see a Hummer driving down the road all I can think about is the ultimate symbol of greed, phony power and wastefulness as it rolls on by.

During his comments, Wagoner indicated that he thinks the shift to smaller more economical vehicles is going to be permanent.  I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Wagoner and feel like possible this American auto manufacturer is looking ahead and not back at their past.  Smaller, more efficient vehicles have been the mainstream in dozens of other countries around the globe and I think it’s about time we make them more available here as well.  There is more good news when it comes to alternative fueled vehicles too.  Waonger said that the board of GM approved the production of the Chevy Volt, the new electric concept car that was unveiled awhile back.  Apparently the electric car will be available beginning in 2010.

The Volt won’t be all electric but with a large, re-chargeable lithium-ion battery pack, Chevy engineers say the plug-in can travel up to 40 miles on just the electric charge alone.  They estimate that during peak energy-usage hours it will cost you a mere $0.80 to recharge the battery.  During off-peak just $0.40.  If you travel longer than 40 miles the hybrid engine will kick-on and help power you to your destination at what engineers say would average 100 miles per gallon of gas.

By cutting production of SUV’s and trucks, GM hopes to save more than $1 billion a year.

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