Solar?

I once saw a Prius, not sure what year or package, that sported a solar panel on the top of the car near the antenna, I believe it was from Australia but again not sure.

Were solar panels ever an option for the Prius? From my recent searching I've come to the conclusion that the option was either never implemented in North America or wasn't very popular. Still would be cool to have more options in charging the battery to get even better gas mileage.

Two questions. One, did Toyota ever release a solar kit for the Prius? And two, with the new lithium battery pack now an option, would there be a way to incorporate solar charging to the charge station that is installed at the house?

 

I guy can dream I guess. Would be nice to know that when not driven the solar panel gave some charge to the battery, maybe not enough to fully charge it but still some. And I live in Georgia, so I'm sure I'd love the option to have it but don't like the set up of the new interior design of the newer models.

And the lithium battery pack that I was talking about before isn't a Toyota package option, I was speaking of the (maybe?) aftermarket battery pack that replaces the spare tire compartment...I was thinking you could hook the system up to some form of solar kit, to basically lower the electricity bill. I know nothing about solar power but could there be a way to have a system that allows the solar panels to charge a high capacity battery and then have the Prius draw from that battery?

 

I'm not speaking of on the car itself. I'm talking about the unit that has to be installed with the lithium battery kit, a wall unit that I would assume is installed along the garage wall. I was thinking you could use solar panels to draw enough power from the sun, having it placed in a separate storage battery and then when you go to hook the Prius up to the station that the energy stored would be what the Prius would draw from. Doing two things, lowering the electricity bill while also not having to keep the car hooked up all day just to charge the battery. I'm sure what I speak of can't be done but it would be nice if it could.

 

Everything I speak of is just ideas, nothing I could ever afford without knowing I could get back whatever money I dropped into it. I just like to know there are options that steer away from gas.

I keep seeing the Leaf, Volt and every other electric vehicle but I'm not ready to get on that bandwagon yet...same reason I opted out of getting a hybrid ten years ago. The first few years are always the experimental phase of any product.