Japan is the land of the rising sun! Meaning that it is more than appropriate for Toyota to introduce the solar panel feature on their home market first. The Toyota Prius Solar Panel feature is going to be sold in Europe as well. However, we won’t see this Prius feature in the US.
The US safety regulations is the issue why we won’t see this feature on the US market. To be more precise, there is not a lamination activity that delivers the resin which is necessary to protect the glass roof from shattering. This is a big problem when you take US crash testing into consideration!
However, Toyota still plans to introduce this feature in the US with their second gen Prius Plug-in Hybrid! These Roof mounted Solar Panels on the Prius are expected to boost the Prius` fuel economy by 10 percent!
