Toyota Motor Corp is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy in an effort to turn around its struggling business with a futuristic ecological car, a top business daily reported.
The Nikkei newspaper, however, said it will be years before the planned vehicle will be available on the market. Toyota's offices were closed Thursday and officials were not immediately available for comment.
According to The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle, and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes. The automaker later hopes to develop a model totally powered by solar cells on the vehicle, the newspaper said without citing sources.
The solar car is part of efforts by Japan's top automaker to grow during hard times, The Nikkei said.
In December, Toyota stunned the nation by announcing it will slip into its first operating loss in 70 years, as it gets battered by a global slump, especially in the key U.S. market. The surging yen has also hurt the earnings of Japanese automakers.
Still, Toyota is a leader in green technology and executives have stressed they won't cut back on environmental research despite its troubles.
Toyota, the manufacturer of the Lexus luxury car and Camry sedan, has already begun using solar panels at its Tsutsumi plant in central Japan to produce some of its own electricity.
Source: Agencies
Showing posts with label Fuel Cells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fuel Cells. Show all posts
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Monday, December 8, 2008
Is ur battery dead? Fuel cells to chip in
How many times have you come across the dreaded situation where you have to make an all-important call and find yourself in the midst of nowhere with a dead cell phone battery? You do not have a charger and you are miles away from access to a plug point. What could you possibly do in such a scenario?
Well, there are a couple of solutions available. One could carry along a spare charged battery, and voila! you have a fully charged phone as soon as you replace the discharged battery. However, this might not always be possible. Oh, and I know quite a few people (whom I shall call Mobile Killers) who can make the most powerful batteries bite the dust in a matter of a few hours. They are people who use the multimedia capabilities of the cellphones of today and remain connected to the Internet via 3G, WiFi or GPRS simultaneously -- insatiable battery resource hogging features.
Other options include devices like these, which certainly do the job, but are not reliable, and guess what? I feel these are "stop gap" arrangements. What we need is a permanent solution to this issue. So, here's something that's futuristic enough to feature on Future Watch!
Enter fuel cells. Now, automobile buffs might be aware that fuel cell powered cars and buses are being used in many countries; as far as I know, this is the most popular application for fuel cells. However, there have been continuous advancements in this field over the past few years, and we have seen instances of fuel cell usage migrating to other applications, ranging from fuel cell powered submarines to concepts of portable "on the fly" chargers for your gadgets.
To date, fuel cell powered chargers were restricted by legislation - being banned on flights because of the presence of methanol, butane, and formic acid in the fuel cell apparatus. This legislation has stunted the growth of the "compact" fuel cell industry all these years; it was recently scrapped by the US Department of Transportation. This has, as expected, lead to a heightened interest in this field due to the financial rewards that can be reaped by targeting this untapped market. So, what is in store now?
Companies like Lilliputian Systems and Medis Technologies are already working on little fuel cell based "generators" that will keep your gadgets powered for a long time with its cigarette lighter sized fuel cell based charging devices. These devices are expected to see the light of day sometime in the last quarter of 2009. Some others, on the other hand, have already introduced products that might be a bit ungainly to look at now. Hey, that's OK. They are new devices. Remember the first cellphone? You might not want to be seen dead with it now. These products, according to Lilliputian Systems, will be sold for $100 and $150 with recharge cartridge prices ranging from $1 to $3.
Expect a slew of devices by the end of next year, and you could finally have a futuristic 'charging point on the go' at your disposal!
Source: Techtree.com
Well, there are a couple of solutions available. One could carry along a spare charged battery, and voila! you have a fully charged phone as soon as you replace the discharged battery. However, this might not always be possible. Oh, and I know quite a few people (whom I shall call Mobile Killers) who can make the most powerful batteries bite the dust in a matter of a few hours. They are people who use the multimedia capabilities of the cellphones of today and remain connected to the Internet via 3G, WiFi or GPRS simultaneously -- insatiable battery resource hogging features.
Other options include devices like these, which certainly do the job, but are not reliable, and guess what? I feel these are "stop gap" arrangements. What we need is a permanent solution to this issue. So, here's something that's futuristic enough to feature on Future Watch!
Enter fuel cells. Now, automobile buffs might be aware that fuel cell powered cars and buses are being used in many countries; as far as I know, this is the most popular application for fuel cells. However, there have been continuous advancements in this field over the past few years, and we have seen instances of fuel cell usage migrating to other applications, ranging from fuel cell powered submarines to concepts of portable "on the fly" chargers for your gadgets.
To date, fuel cell powered chargers were restricted by legislation - being banned on flights because of the presence of methanol, butane, and formic acid in the fuel cell apparatus. This legislation has stunted the growth of the "compact" fuel cell industry all these years; it was recently scrapped by the US Department of Transportation. This has, as expected, lead to a heightened interest in this field due to the financial rewards that can be reaped by targeting this untapped market. So, what is in store now?
Companies like Lilliputian Systems and Medis Technologies are already working on little fuel cell based "generators" that will keep your gadgets powered for a long time with its cigarette lighter sized fuel cell based charging devices. These devices are expected to see the light of day sometime in the last quarter of 2009. Some others, on the other hand, have already introduced products that might be a bit ungainly to look at now. Hey, that's OK. They are new devices. Remember the first cellphone? You might not want to be seen dead with it now. These products, according to Lilliputian Systems, will be sold for $100 and $150 with recharge cartridge prices ranging from $1 to $3.
Expect a slew of devices by the end of next year, and you could finally have a futuristic 'charging point on the go' at your disposal!
Source: Techtree.com
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