Given the fact that it has already been at the epicentre of numerous green car developments, it should come as no surprise that the name Toyota has taken another giant leap forward for green motoring.

Toyota Industries Corp has developed a solar charging station for both electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles with the municipal government of Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, planning to build 21 stations at 11 locations including the municipal office and branch offices.

Operation of the stations will begin in April with 20 Prius Plug-in Hybrids to take their power from the station that is connected to the grid and also captures power generated by the 1.9kW solar panel in an 8.4kWh storage battery. Self-sustained operation using solar power from the battery pack has a maximum output of 101VAC/1.5kVA.

Any excess power that is generated can be used for facilities in the system or sold to a utility company with Toyota expecting that the station can also be used to provide power for electrical equipment in the event of a disaster.

The company has been involved in developing charging systems for electric vehicles since the 1990s and, at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show, it displayed newly developed charging stands with communication devices. These allow for user authentication using IC card technology while also enabling the collection of data such as usage conditions of the charging service and amount of power used.

According to its press briefing at the show it hopes to increase charging functionality and respond to the needs of charging infrastructure through the development of electronic billing and solar charging stations that further reduce environmental impact.