On Monday, The Nikkei, the most important business newspaper in Japan, talked about Toyota’s 2009 plans for its Prius hybrid model. According to the popular publication, the company will use solar panels for the upcoming generation of automobiles.

It seems the new Prius will feature rooftop solar panels, which will be used for partly powering the car’s air-conditioning system. Toyota will get the panels from partner Kyocera.

At the end of April, A123 Systems announced it had started taking online orders from those Toyota Prius owners who want to switch from hybrid to plug-in hybrid. The operation can be done by getting new L5 battery module. However, it won’t be the cheapest of car-related work sessions, as the battery and installation cost $9,995, to which $400 are added for taxes and a "destination fee."

Companies like Toyota and GM have been working on the development of plug-in hybrid vehicles but it seems that the technology is still too expensive to be implemented at a larger scale. For those currently using it, the environmental issue is probably more important than that of gas money savings.

Toyota sold 2.621 million cars in the US in 2007, surpassing Ford Motor Co for second place behind GM. A spokesman said that sales of 2.69 million vehicles are expected in 2008. At the beginning of the year Toyota officials restated the company’s commitment to bring plug-in hybrids on the market by 2010.