The Toyota Automobile Museum is home to some truly unique eco-friendly cars from days gone by, all results of groundbreaking research toward carbon neutrality.
1991, the year a solar car first hit the road
The person we spoke with was Carbon Neutral Development Division Group Manager Taizo Masuda, Ph.D. in Engineering, who has made a previous appearance on Toyota Times.
Masuda’s groundbreaking innovations include a way to freely work design colors and patterns onto inorganic solar panels. We asked him about the history of Toyota’s solar car development.
Masuda
Toyota’s solar car development dates all the way back to the 1980s. A prototype called the RaRa II was exhibited at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1991.
Development has been ongoing ever since. In 2009, the company released a Prius that could be equipped with optional solar panels. At that time, the solar panels could only generate power for circulating air inside the vehicle, but with continued research, by 2017, they reached the point of being able to charge the car for driving.
Toyota developed the RaRa II, which is also on exhibit at the museum, for the Asahi Shimbun newspaper to guide runners in the Ekiden relay race organized by Asahi Broadcasting.
From the 1980s to the present, many people at Toyota have been researching solar cars as a trump card that could transform the vehicles of the future.
Their efforts have helped advance development. On the international front, solar cars are also gaining traction around the world.
Is Japan a solar car superpower?
Masuda
Overseas, in Europe and countries such as the U.S., South Korea, and China, solar car development is thriving, with some manufacturers even offering cars equipped with solar panels.
Even so, I think it’s fair to say that Japan is particularly dedicated to solar car development and possesses advanced technology.
Indeed, Toyota’s Prius PHV, launched in 2017, is considered the world’s first mass-produced car to feature a solar charging system capable of powering the vehicle’s battery for driving.
Currently, among Toyota’s mass-market models, the Prius PHEV and the bZ4X, released in 2022, are offered with optional roof solar panels.
These panels charge the car while it is parked, emitting no CO2. Given Japan’s limited natural resources, sunlight is a vital energy source, and solar cars will become ever more important as part of a multi-pathway approach to carbon neutrality.
As photovoltaic power generation looks set to become a dependable decarbonization technology, Masuda says that “though we can’t share many details just yet,” game-changing solar cells may be on the way.