Solar panels for the new Prius?

The Toyota Prius, the world's most popular hybrid, will have solar panels on the roof of its new high-end models to help power the air conditioning, according to a Japanese report.

The Kyocera solar cells would make Toyota the first major automaker to use solar power for a vehicle, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Toyota, which did not immediately confirm the reports, has sold more than a million Prius models over the past decade and is planning to sell a million hybrids a year sometime after 2010. The carmaker plans to produce some 450,000 Priuses at home in 2009, up 60 percent from 2007, the Nikkei said.

That's not fast enough growth, writes Daniel McIntyre on the 24/7 Wall Street blog. The solar panels '''will probably make the little vehicle get some insane miles-per-gallon figure, perhaps 100. The trouble is that almost no one can get a Prius. Supply of the cars is very, very short because Toyota did not anticipate the demand that high oil prices would cause.''

Update: Here's a post from Treehugger on a Canadian do-it-yourselfer who has been experimenting with solar panels on a Prius as well.

What do you think? Would you buy one? Do you think it's a gimmick -- or the future? Have your say in our comments section below.