Looks like green just got a shade greener. Toyota motor corp has released plans to offer a hybrid electric prius with solar panels, becoming the first major automotive manufacturer to use solar power for a vehicle. Apparently, the plan is to incorporate the solar panels on the roof of the vehicle for their next gen premium Prius, which will power the cars air conditioning system. According to Nikkei, a Japanese newspaper, Toyota plans to use Kyocera solar panels on the vehicle.

There are also rumors stirring about a plug-in hybrid electric from Toyota, perhaps the next gen Prius will be the worlds first hybrid, plug-in, electric, solar powered vehicle. We’re hoping they give it a new nickname so that we don’t need 15 adjectives to describe their next line up. Here’s one, the SPHERE (Solar Powered Hybrid Electric Renewable Energy… uhh… yeah i lost myself on that one.) Anyone up for going back to gas now?

I’d be curious to see the next Prius (solar panels installed) and a regular Camry get on the green scale and find out which one takes more non-green energy to produce. Are these cars really green, or just a way to make consumers feel less guilty about our impact on the environment?