Agassi realized that if he turned a profit on the fuel, he could radically subsidize the cars, much as cell phone carriers sell minutes and heavily subsidize the phones.

Hedging has locked in high fuel prices for many of the region's carriers in dollar terms, and the weakened euro is exaggerating that impact.

The panels will be placed atop 60,000 ton car carriers being used by Toyota Motor Corp, and save up to 6.5% of fuel oil normally used in powering the large diesel engines.