The optional solar roof for the Toyota Prius Prime sounds like a good idea (on paper) concerning the reduction of the vehicle’s charging expenses and promotion of sustainability values. When you come to evaluate the cost versus benefit, however, you have to take into account the front cost of the solar roof, the potential savings of the charging cost which can vary from driver to driver according to his needs from the car, and his geographic area of residence to calculate the total value it might provide to the owner.
With a price tag of $610, the optional solar roof for the Toyota Prius Prime is valuable only if you purchase the vehicle for long-term use and if you live in an area that has a warm and sunny climate. Under optimal conditions, the roof will produce energy equivalent to four miles per day and will pay for itself after about four years, depending on your driving habits.
The optional solar roof for the Toyota Prius Prime replaces the standard glass panel and is also available as part of pricier packages that include additional features which are not included in the basic package. The solar roof can provide power to accessories such as the air conditioner which is a nice touch.
For Prius Prime models equipped with a solar roof, there is a dedicated infotainment page that displays information about the panel’s performance. This page shows real-time power generation with numbers like energy gained in Watt-hours per day and kilowatt-hours gained over the vehicle’s lifetime, as well as the additional electric driving range obtained in a day and over the vehicle’s lifetime.
Now that we got that out of our system let’s dive deep into each of the important points that must be considered before making a purchase. Before we do that, however, you should ask yourself what your goal actually is (by purchasing the solar roof):
Do you want to add a few miles to your range every day?
Or, do you want to save on fuel expenses?
Or, maybe the goal lies in an environmental value and the subtleties of cost versus benefit are less relevant to you? Answering these questions can give you an idea of what is most important to you in all of this.
Now, after a brief introspection let’s break into all the factors that make up the equation of cost versus benefit in this case.
Cost of the Solar Roof
As mentioned, the price of the Prius Prime solar roof stands at $610. We’re talking about a 185-watt panel. Obviously, you pay for it upfront therefore, you have to calculate how long this money will pay itself back.
The US Retail Gas Price is at a current level of 3.6$ per gallon. If you assume an average fuel savings of approximately a tenth of a gallon per day and if the cost of gasoline is $4 per gallon ( I rounded a bit because national average prices across the US are $4.113), the solar roof option would pay for itself in approximately 4-5 years.
Energy savings:
The whole idea of using the solar roof is to harness the sun’s energy to the hybrid battery and use less of the fuel-driven engine resulting in less fuel consumption. As I mentioned before under the most optimal conditions (i.e., you drove to work, parked in an outdoor parking lot under ideal sunny conditions, and returned home at five in the afternoon) you save, at most, 4 miles per day. As you probably already know, however, if you drive an electric or hybrid car, the range available in the car is affected by a variety of factors such as driving speed, driving style, road route (straight or bumpy) weather conditions, and, of course, in this case also maximum sun exposure. Each of these factors individually, can have an effect on its own on the saved range.
Length of Ownership
How long do you plan to keep the car? If your plans are for the long term, then the solar panel is more likely to pay for itself. If you are one of those who change cars every two years (I’m in favor) then you probably won’t reap the benefits of your investment. Although there are those who will argue that the solar roof will increase the value of the car and will be beneficial to a would-be potential buyer, which ultimately leaves me on the fence.
Regional Factors
This is perhaps one of the most important aspects in this equation. The ability of the solar roof to harness solar energy depends very much on your personal geographical area. Areas that enjoy a lot of sunshine will necessarily allow more efficient energy savings than areas that are cold and rainy throughout most of the year. If, for example, you live in sunny California or Texas for that matter, your chances of saving four miles a day are higher than someone who lives in Canada where the weather is cold most of the year except for a few months of sunshine in the summer.
Do You Have Garage Parking at Home? What About in the Workplace?
People tend to say “…but I park in a garage, a solar panel is irrelevant to me.” That’s not necessarily accurate. Don’t forget about parking at work. In many workplaces, there is outdoor parking, so Monday through Friday, you park outside anyway, so why not save a few miles if you have the option?
Of course, the disadvantages must also be taken into account and the main disadvantage here is that after hours of parking at an outdoor parking lot, in the strong sun, your car is boiling when you get in (not to mention the secondary damage to the exterior of the car such as paint, bird poop, etc.). Once you’re in, you’re likely to crank the air conditioner all the way to cool the car, and as you know the air conditioner is a serious energy consumer rendering the whole equation unbalanced. Unless you chose to open the windows and sacrifice yourself for five minutes until the car cools down a bit (I, who live in a hot climate area, am unable to do this – as soon as I get in the car, the air conditioner works all the way and I don’t care about the wasted energy I just can’t survive the heat).
In short – these are the small details you should think about before you embark on this adventure.
Access to Charging
Here too, the area where you live and your driving habits varies from driver to driver. If you live in an area where there are a lot of charging stations then 4 miles per day is not that significant. If, however, you live or drive in areas where access to a charging station is more minimal then four miles a day can go a long way.
The matter of savings also varies from driver to driver. For me, someone who works from home and uses the car mainly to drop off and pick up the kids to and from school and maybe drop them off at friends or after-school programs, etc., four miles is a lot. On the other hand, someone who covers large distances every day can see four miles per day as an insignificant number for his needs.
Personal Priorities
In the end, the choice to buy the optional solar roof is not necessarily a matter of financial savings or even a calculation of value for money.
Some of the drivers who choose an electric vehicle do so because some values like protecting the environment and ensuring sustainability are important to them, hence the choice of the solar roof option is a logical continuation of that way of thinking.
In the end, not everything is measured through the lens of the dollar, but possibly through values that are important for us to uphold.
In Conclusion
The Prius Prime’s solar panel is nice to have and not a must have. Certainly when you look at it from the perspective of saving money. The idea behind it is wonderful, but at least with the existing technology, the miles it brings (four miles per day) that require parking in an outdoor parking lot with all the implications derived from that (the heat that accumulates in the car, the damage to the paint and the exterior of the car) are simply not worth it to me.
Until the technology improves and the solar roof can save at least 12 miles per day its usefulness is marginal.
The only reason to purchase such a solar roof in my opinion is a matter of sustainability values and the desire to protect the environment, which are definitely worthy reasons