Toyota made a splash this year when it introduced a new version of the Prius with a solar panel integrated into its roof. The panel only powers a ventilation fan in the vehicle, to help keep it cooler on hot days—but it’s not really a solar-powered car.

Real photovoltaic (PV) cars do exist. They’re not really going to take on any land-speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Nevada anytime soon. Still, they are getting pretty zippy these days, with the fastest reaching speeds close to 100 mph.

At this point, the world’s fastest PV car is the Japanese Tokai Challenger, which can reach speeds of up to 94 mph.

Tokai Challenger, cruising along at an average speed of 58 mph, won last year’s Global Green Challenge, the biennial 1,864-mile race across Australia. The vehicle completed last year’s challenge in 29 hours and 49 minutes—that’s slightly more than the world record of 29 hours and 11 minutes set by the Dutch team’s Nuna 3 vehicle in 2005. However, the Tokai Challenger, made by Tokai University of Japan, did get a flat during the race.

The car has 2,176 PV cells producing 1.8 kilowatts of power. By comparison, the Prius has a 33 kW electric motor. The Challenger’s biggest competition is Nuna 5, which hails from the Netherlands and reaches a top speed of 93 mph. These cars don’t look anything like conventional vehicles, more like a plane wing covered with PV cells.

Since the 2005 race, rules of the challenge have changed. In January 2007, because of the increased speed of the solar-powered cars, the race instituted a top speed of 130 kilometers per hour (about 81 mph). If contestants go over the limit, they’re assessed a time penalty. In addition, the size of the contestants’ PV panels was limited to six square meters (previously, panels were larger). And the tilt of the driver’s seat (there’s a small cockpit) has been changed for safety precautions.

The Dutch team won the previous four races and Nuna 5 was favored to win last year’s race, but during pre-race events, the vehicle went off the road and crashed. Still, the team was able to put the car back together and reach second place in the race, edging out the University of Michigan’s entry. What happens at 2011’s race remains to be seen.